Bobcat Dens ?
- Thread starter PineCone
- Start date
GC
Well-known member
I don't know how this will relate entirely to your state/region, but here is some info. Missouri bobcat males have a home range of 18-28 square miles. Females maintain a range of 5-12 miles. This is smaller during the hot summer months. Bobcats simply move less when uncomfortably hot. Females move less when they have kittens to care for than normally. Winter and early spring is when the cats move the widest around within their territory. Females have a nearly exclusive range. Males ranges will overlap over other bobcats ranges, both male and female. They do not necessarily bed in the exact same place day to day. They utilize fresh bedding areas and move around within their range. Hope this is helpful?
Tactical .20
New member
I don't think she abandons them like a coyote. The fur buyer told me if I catch a tittie female I should let her go because she is still taking care of the kittens. When coyotes are on their own then. He told me if you take the tittie female the kittens die also.T.20
They don't have permanent dens, and won't excavate a hole in the ground like a fox for raising their young. Look for something more like a hollow tree, tangled blowdown, or rockpile or ledge with a natural cavity, probably hidden in the thickest ravine around. Much like a feral cat with kittens, mama may move them frequently, so if you find a den today, it may well be gone tomorrow...
With the exception of when raising a litter, bobcats aren't known to bed down in the same spot each day, much less return to a den. That said, they tend to be creatures of habit, so I'd expect that it's likely one could re-use a particular cored-out oak or just as likely any of several such trees in a given patch of woods, for instance, whenever passing through that section and a big winter storm is about to hit. Which would be close enough for predator calling purposes, as soon as the storm starts to clear...
While I've never before heard a bobcat home range number floated as large as GC mentions for Missouri, I don't doubt it.
But in the coastal mountains here, their ranges tend to be MUCH smaller. I can readily think of a few areas where there are several bobcat territories overlapping within a couple of square miles, with the cats sharing prime mousing meadows via mutually avoidance, all year.
At 5K elevation in the National Forest literally at my doorstep, I've noted particular bobcats doing seasonal moves up and down of a mile or two.
Good that you found a spot where they like to sun; might be one of two dozen such spots, but chances are excellent that sooner or later a cat will return.
LionHo
With the exception of when raising a litter, bobcats aren't known to bed down in the same spot each day, much less return to a den. That said, they tend to be creatures of habit, so I'd expect that it's likely one could re-use a particular cored-out oak or just as likely any of several such trees in a given patch of woods, for instance, whenever passing through that section and a big winter storm is about to hit. Which would be close enough for predator calling purposes, as soon as the storm starts to clear...
While I've never before heard a bobcat home range number floated as large as GC mentions for Missouri, I don't doubt it.
But in the coastal mountains here, their ranges tend to be MUCH smaller. I can readily think of a few areas where there are several bobcat territories overlapping within a couple of square miles, with the cats sharing prime mousing meadows via mutually avoidance, all year.
At 5K elevation in the National Forest literally at my doorstep, I've noted particular bobcats doing seasonal moves up and down of a mile or two.
Good that you found a spot where they like to sun; might be one of two dozen such spots, but chances are excellent that sooner or later a cat will return.
LionHo