While neighboring Illinois has decided that it is ok to begin to hunt and trap its recovering Bobcat population, next door Indiana has thus far resisted doing so...........While uncertain of the population size in the Hoosier state, wildlife Officials there have noted that since 2010, the annual number of Bobcats killed by motorists has risen 6-fold from 10 in 2010 to 60 in 2015...........Also, "Bobs" have been confirmed to be located in 63 of Indiana’s 92 counties, with the southwestern portion of the state seeing the highest densities of the "cats" because of the mixed woodlots, hills and reclaimed mining sites that the Bobcats find to their liking..............According to Scott Johnson, a nongame mammal biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), “an analysis of over 100 bobcat stomachs has shown their diet is primarily composed of mammals including rabbit, mice, voles, and squirrel.......... Remains of several bird species were also found to be eaten but only in a small percentage of the bobcats autopsied............. Johnson also noted that bobcats, like many predators, are opportunistic and will scavenge deer carcasses during fall-winter months...........As demonstrated in adjacent Illinois, Ohio and in recolonizing populations in New Jersey, NY and New England, Indiana biologists in south central Indiana revealed that bobcats studied there often dispersed distances upwards of 50-100 miles from their natal birthplaces............. This ability to cover long distances allows them to recolonize available habitat and re-establish breeding colonies quickly if not overly hunted, trapped and killed by motorists

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MARTINO: Bobcats' presence continues to increase in Indiana

• By JOHN MARTINO Outdoors columnist
 
• Jan 24, 2016
 

• Submitted photo

NICE OUTING: Kokomo's Adam Blankenberger caught several largemouth bass, including this beauty, during the unseasonably mild weather several weeks back.

                 MORE ABOUT INDIANA              BOBCATS AND IT'S WILD          FAUNA/FLORA Edited byMarion T.
             Jackson ISBN: 978-0-253-33074-1 

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