If, in recent years, you’ve noticed a drop in the number of deer, raccoons, rats, or other popular critters prowling Connecticut’s forests and towns, bobcats could be behind it.
The bobcat, or Lynx rufus, is the most common bobcat in North America. And over the past 50 years, those characteristic furry-eared, furry-cheeked felines have gone from almost nonexistent in the Nutmeg State to elusive ubiquity.
“We are finding out so much more about them and how they are such an amazing and adaptable animal,” said Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. “We used to think that they needed an undisturbed habitat to persist. But through research over the years, we found that they are incredibly adaptable and able to thrive during urban development, which is important because Connecticut’s development is going nowhere.”
Since 2017, DEEP has used GPS collars and telemetry to track about 150 bobcats across the state. Hawley said Connecticut’s urban cores connected by streams and green spaces have created routes for bobcats to find new hunting grounds. One has even been traced between New Haven and Bridgeport, where a veritable feast has been found in an abandoned Remington Arms ammunition facility.
“It’s turned into a thick, nasty, nasty thing that you and I would look at and think ‘I don’t want to go through that,'” Hawley said. “But for the bobcat it’s like a little piece of heaven.”
Most active from dusk to dawn, Hawley said Connecticut’s bobcats have become an integral part of the urban ecosystem as a kind of night watchmen: de facto dark knights, watchful protectors often mistaken for the much more dangerous lion. mountain, which is not found in Connecticut.
Due to the pandemic, Sean Crane has lately switched his lens to the nature of his Farmington property, where creatures like this bobcat regularly roam.
be crane“They’re providing an ecosystem health service,” Hawley said. “In our research, we found them collecting common Norway rats. Control of populations of raccoons, opossums, deer. All those things you think you see everywhere.”
Hawley said the creatures that bobcats hunt tend to breed with impunity. And while that might be good for an individual species, runaway population growth can be bad for an ecosystem. But bobcats are a territorial species driven by food. That means they are self-regulating. So while they’ve made a remarkable comeback, Hawley said those numbers will level off.
Nearly 2,500 bobcat sightings have been reported to DEEP so far this year in almost every town in the state. You may not see them, but they are there, he said, waiting in the tall grass and thick brush, lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on their next prey.
“People walk really close to them all the time and they never know they’re there,” Hawley said.
Bobcats mate around February or March and then give birth during the spring. During the first few months, the small litter of kittens feeds on the mother. But in the middle of summer, those kittens are eating meat. Bobcat moms are especially active during these times because they are hunting two and even four bellies.
That means your chances of seeing a mama bobcat are a bit higher in the summer.
“A lot of the easy meals are close to home,” Hawley said. “If you think about it, everyone’s backyard is the perfect hunting ground for a bobcat. They can ambush predators and find good cover in scrubby habitats.”
Hawley said that bobcats often stay on the edge of a garden and wait for a rabbit to jump or a squirrel to go to a bird feeder.
As wild as they are, bobcats are still considered small cats. Females grow to around 20 pounds, while males can reach 35. They are usually only two to three times larger than a typical house cat. Hawley said they don’t hunt pets and generally stay away from humans.
When calls come into DEEP about missing cats, it’s more likely the work of coyotes, who hunt animals like cats.
Most sightings occur from inside a house or when seeing one quickly running down the street. Their characteristic wagging tails are often blurred into their hind legs, making them look like they could be a mountain lion. But DEEP said the last confirmed mountain lion sighting was in 2011, when one died on Merritt Parkway. Before that, a few hundred years had passed.
Unlike cougars, which grow up to five times their size, bobcats don’t pick on humans. It’s rare, but Hawley said you can sometimes come across a bobcat chasing a squirrel in a forest near a hiking trail. And if you come across one, Hawley recommends drinking right away.
“Stop where you are and enjoy seeing a rather elusive animal in its natural habitat,” he said. “The best thing you can do is try to stay still so you don’t startle the bobcat and watch and observe it for as long as you can.”
But if the bobcat scares you before you can, a crisp clap of applause should see it off.