Following several decades of management, including a total hunting ban in some states, bobcat numbers nationwide are now estimated to be well over 3 million, and growing. In Maine, where limited trapping is allowed, populations are also healthy.
“Our indexes suggest that for the past 15 years, 20 years, the population has been steady to increasing,” says Cory Mosby, a specialist in fur-bearing animals with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Mosby says prior to the 1970s, bobcats were often viewed as vermin and hunting was allowed year round. Changing that practice, he says, is likely one of several reasons the cats have rebounded.
“Our increasing populations could be for a variety of reasons. I mean, we have a new established prey source in much of central and southern Maine, which is the wild turkey. As well as changes in land use in that part of the state,” he says.
By contrast, Mosby says northern Maine hasn’t seen the same bobcat surge; instead, those areas have seen more Canada Lynx establishing territory.
Mosby says bobcats are becoming adapted to suburban areas, but he says humans have nothing to fear from the midsize felids, which are known to keep rabbits and rodents in check.
In Maine bobcat trapping is allowed during the general trapping season in November and December.
