BOBCATS

File:Bobcat2.jpeg

Photograph courtesy of Tom Carroll

BOBCATS. A pair of sightings on trail cameras in southern Dubuque County in May 2017 highlighted a great comeback story for bobcats in Iowa. The Dubuque County Conservation Society posted the pictures on their Facebook page earlier this month.

   "It's a great conservation success story that the 
   populations are rebounding and spreading mostly 
   through southern Iowa, but the populations here in 
   eastern Iowa are rebounding as well," said Brian 
   Preston, director of Dubuque County Conservation. (1)

Bobcats are one of Iowa's three native wildcats. Generally widespread and unprotected, they became threatened because of a European interest for animals skin coats. (2) Furriers considered them a substitute for the skins of leopards driving the price of a pelt to approximately $150 and some as high as $400 for those with thick fur from the northern United States. Also threatening bobcat population was the loss of habitat. Only Kansas and North Carolina reported their bobcat populations as increasing. (3)

Preston says they've seen bobcats go from an endangered species in 1977, to just a species of concern today. Their numbers have gone up enough that the Iowa DNR now opens a brief season on bobcats in some counties. Hunting of bobcats in 2024 was still banned in Dubuque and Clayton counties. (4) They posed no threat to humans or their animals, and survived on a diet of small game like mice and rabbits.

                  "Bobcats are a very secretive animal. I still have not 
                  seen a live one in the wild. I've seen plenty of trail 
                  camera pictures, I've seen tracks, have not seen a live 
                  bobcat. But they don't like to be around humans, and they 
                  will take off," Preston said. (5)

If fortunate enough to see one, hikers were encouraged to keep their distance and enjoy the opportunity. Many people tended to mislabel bobcats as mountain lions. Mountain lions no longer have a native population in Iowa, and are usually up to ten feet, while bobcats are just three feet long. (6)

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Source:

1. Hanson, Brad. Pair of Dubuque County Sightings Highlight Bobcat Comeback in Iowa, KWWL.com May 22, 2017Online: http://www.kwwl.com/story/35483608/2017/5/22/pair-of-dubuque-county-sightings-highlight-bobcat-comeback-in-iowa

2. Nieland, Grace, "Bobcats' Comeback Continues in Iowa Amid 'Sustainable Skimming," Telegraph Herald, December 24, 2024, p. 1

3. "Bobcat 'Endangered' Candidate," Telegraph Herald, October 9, 1977, p. 29

4. Nieland

5. Hanson

6. Ibid.