A look at bobcats
Researchers use GPS collars to track predators
HARTFORD, CONN. » In a couple of weeks, collars on cats across Connecticut will be falling off.
But it’s not some prank or devious experiment. It’s one of the largest studies of its kind on bobcats.
The GPS collars were placed on 50 bobcats last fall as part of research by wildlife biologists at the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to track the movements of one of the Northeast’s most ferocious predators.
The agency wants local residents’ help in finding the collars on and after Aug. 1, when they are programmed to fall off. The goal is to find all the collars, recharge their batteries and place them back on another 50 bobcats in the fall to continue the study.
The research is important for conservation efforts because bobcats have more of an effect on animal species than any other predators in the region, consuming mice, chipmunks, rabbits, squirrels, skunks, raccoons and even deer, said Jason Hawley, a DEEP wildlife biologist. The bobcats also eat small livestock such as chickens and, sometimes, small pets.
“It’s pretty amazing actually,” Hawley said. “They don’t get over 30 to 35 pounds, and they can take down deer. The status of our bobcat population in the state can tell us a lot about other animals.”
The study may end up showing a need to reduce the bobcat population to conserve other species, he said.
Bobcats are found all over North America. In Connecticut, they nearly vanished because of a $5 bounty offered by the state for decades and massive deforesting due to farming. The population has rebounded after the state reclassified bobcats as protected furbearers in the early 1970s and eliminated hunting and trapping seasons and forests grew back to cover about 60 percent of the state, up from 25 percent in 1825.
Hawley estimated there are about 1,000 bobcats in the state, give or take a few hundred.
The collars have been transmitting data back to researchers. A surprising finding, Hawley said, is many of the bobcats are selecting suburban neighborhoods as their home, probably because of abundant squirrel populations thriving on seed from bird feeders.