"Research from the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station has revealed that Bobcats livng in northern New England have changed how they move throughout the region over time"............"Since the 1950's,hunting has decreased, Bocat populations are on the increase with somewhat of a decrease in genetic diversity"................"The population is more spatially divided due to human-built and natural barriers"..............."Historically, bobcats did well in southern areas of the region because they were outcompeted by the (big-pawed)Canada Lynx in the north"................."Now bobcats are thriving in more northern areas(along side Lynx) because of the substantial decrease in snowfall due to climate change as well as human development of land in the south"..................And it should be noted that stable Eastern Coyote populations across the region are not denting Bobcats numbers

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.unionleader.com/news/animals/climate-change-sprawl-is-affecting-bobcats-says-researcher/article_ccc5f59a-a6fc-59d0-9622-42ce78b92ae6.html&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoUMTgwNDgzNTk4MTExNDgwMDYzNTIyGmU3OWU0ODU4MjYwNGNkZDU6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNG7Z0cR8jlBrltqPH-8F1D67rPxjA

Climate change, sprawl is affecting bobcats, says researcher

Kimberly Haas 4/3/19

A young bobcat at the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.

Photo courtesy of Allie Stewart; USFWS

DURHAM — Northern New England bobcats are being affected by suburban sprawl and climate change, according to researchers at New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station.

Rory Carroll, who is an earth and environmental sciences doctoral candidate at the University of New Hampshire, is working with Experiment Station Researcher and UNH Professor Marian Litvaitis. Together, they are using DNA from bobcat skulls collected by state agencies since the 1950s and 1960s to examine decades of population genetic patterns across Northern New England.

They found that bobcats have changed how they move throughout the states over time. Genetic diversity has somewhat decreased and the population is more divided due to human-built and natural barriers.

For example, along some parts of I-89 borders between subpopulations align closely with the location of the highway.

The researchers also noticed a trend in where bobcats are now thriving.

Historically, bobcats did well in southern areas of the region because they were outcompeted by the Canada Lynx in the north. Now bobcats are thriving in more northern areas because of the substantial decrease in snowfall due to climate change as well as human development of land in the south.

New Hampshire Bobcat on an evening hunting trip

“Our earlier work showed snow depth limited the distribution of bobcats. Hence, the northern part of the state is now better habitat than it was historically. Second, the south likely has become less hospitable because that is where the greatest amount of development has occurred between the historic and contemporary times,” Carroll said in a statement.

Carroll said that despite these challenges, bobcats are more abundant in New Hampshire today than they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Part of that has to do with hunting restrictions in the Granite State, Carroll said.

Carroll, who is 38-years-old and living in Sunderland, Mass., is planning to defend his dissertation Wednesday. He said this research was the springboard he used to determine what changes bobcats have made in their diets and to study the cortisol levels of contemporary bobcats to see how stressed they are in their environments.


Bobcat/Puma size differential

“It’s pretty awesome with the dissertation coming up next week, but the really cool thing is getting the work out there,” Carroll said in an interview.

Carroll and Litvaitis have published their research in the journal “Conservation Genetics.” Their work is being funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state of New Hampshire. It is also supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program, UNH Graduate School Dissertation Year Fellowship, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife, and Parks, as well as individual hunters and trappers.

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click to read full article 

https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/02/05/bobcat-tracking-new-england-connecticut

Following Decades Of Conservation Efforts, Bobcat Populations Are Returning To New England

February 05, 2019

• Patrick Skahil

As bobcats return to New England following decades of conservation and forest regrowth, biologists want to learn more about what these mysterious wild cats are up to.

This female bobcat was tagged and outfitted with a GPS collar, which she'll wear for 300 days. (Patrick Skahill/CPR)

So using tools like GPS collars, Jason Hawley and his team(Connecticut Dept. of Conservations) are examining bobcat diets and fertility rates, trying to unravel how the cats act in the wild, and increasingly, in our backyard.

“Are bobcats in more urban areas using different habitat? Or different resources?” Hawley said, comparing the city cats to their more rural counterparts. “Are they using it at different times of the day? Are they moving at different times?”

Bobcats are about two-to-three times the size of the average house cat. These wild cats are elusive and quick, and as populations have gone up, Hawley said lots of people confuse them with mountain lions.

“Most people think of bobcats as needing woods and living out in the middle of nowhere, but we’re finding they’re very adaptable animals,” Hawley said.

So far, Connecticut’s project has collared about 85 cats, tracking bobcats through rural forests — and even one in Connecticut’s biggest city.

“It’s pretty amazing. He’ll go right into, almost, downtown Bridgeport and use some of the park land that they have in there,” Hawley said.

Jason Hawley works on a bobcat in a lab at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington, Conn. After some collaring and sampling work, the cat was released. (Patrick Skahill/CPR)

Regionally, sightings are also on the rise. Vermont wildlife officials say bobcat populations are “healthy” and “well-distributed.” And numbers are also up in Maine, increasing alongside the bobcat’s bigger cousin, the Canada lynx.

Back in Connecticut, Hawley said bobcats, which in the mid-20th century were subject to a bounty, can now be seen in all towns.

Coordinates they’re getting from those GPS collars are helping to pinpoint den sites, letting field biologists examine bobcat kittens in the wild and providing opportunities that otherwise would be nearly impossible.

All that GPS data also provides something else: insights into bobcat personalities.

Take, for example, another cat Hawley’s team tagged in southern Connecticut.

“His home range was a vertical strip along the Connecticut River … and he would actually go out to islands on the river. Like, swimming out to the islands,” Hawley said. “Most people think cats don’t want to swim … so they’re very interesting animals and they definitely have personalities.”