ORDER CARNIVORA

Family Felidae - Cats

Lynx rufus - Bobcat

Lynx and bobcat don't share habitat. Bobcats are more aggressive and replace lynx. Lynx do better in snowier areas (larger feet). But up in northern arid tundra, where there is little snow, the large- footed lynx can't do well against narrow- footed arctic hare---loses out to Arctic foxes and tundra wolves, as they do in the south to bobcats. Lynx can eat 250 hares per year--- but hare pops flux from 1,000 to 5 per 250 acres. Lynx pops follow 6 to 18 months later.

Stokes Nature Guide---Animal Tracking and Behavior

Other North American wild cats are the cougar (F. concolor), lynx (F. lynx) and the ocelot (F. pardalis).

Mainly nocturnal (with catnaps from midnight to four am). Ave. range is 12 miles, but great variability. They tend to have a favorite site within their range.

Bobcats cover their scats 50% of time.

Diet is rabbits, hares (in North), rats, deer, squirrels, mice and voles IN this ORDER. Look for puncture signs on top of neck.

Adults leave separate lives except midwinter mating (January and February). They split and the female raises kittens alone. Gestation is 55 days, born in March to May, although, females may remain in estrus till August, so births can occur up to October. In the fall or winter, they go out on their own, able to bear young their second year.

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Audubon Naturalist Society class with Rob Gibbs (1/97) - last bobcat reported in Montgomery County was at Hughes Hollow in 1978.

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NATIONAL WILDLIFE (90?) - Lynx live by a diet of 80% snowshoe rabbits, when the rabbits are plentiful. When hares make up less than 65%, the lynx is facing starvation. Lynx and bobcat don't share habitat. Bobcats are more aggressive and replace lynx. Lynx do better in snowier areas (larger feet). But up in northern arid tundra, where there is little snow, the large- footed lynx can't do well against narrow- footed arctic hare---loses out to Arctic foxes and tundra wolves, as they do in the south to bobcats (in both cases, the lynx loses to other swifter-on-solid surface hunters). Bobcats are much more aggressive. A trapped bobcat fights back while a trapped lynx is more passive. Lynx can eat 250 hares per year--- but hare pops flux from 1,000 to 5 per 250 acres over a ten year cycle. Lynx pops follow 6 to 18 months later. Lynx do not hunt by scent, thus are not suspicious of human odors. Traps therefore, do not use baits, but colorful items which lure in the lynx by it’s curiosity.