Found an interesting study on bobcats (and to a lesser degree fox and other predators), that had to do with determining how moon phases affect bobcat/predator activity. The study found that cats actually move more during crepuscular periods (dawn and dusk) and moved less when it was a dark night. In addition, the study also found that cats change their prey selection depending on the photoperiod and the amount of light/darkness. Apparently fox do the same, and one would assume coyotes would do likewise. Pretty interesting reading and definitely is food for thought. I don't know how a trapper would change or modify trapping style or location based on the information, but it does help explain some of the quirkiness of a cat's behavior.

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069213

This is a fascinating article.
Thanks for sharing!!!

Thanks for the link.

Thank you for sharing. Just reinforces my own thoughts. Good read

Definitely interesting to say the least. I wish they could go into an area with a higher density of bobcats for a study. A sample size of less than 10 over two years leaves quite a bit to be desired, no matter what they say about meeting the assumptions of normality.

Bobcats do seem to be about the only animal I target that is more active on a full moon that's for sure, and I also noted I had all of my catches before 11 p.m. as I ran in the middle of the night a lot while working. I ran some other animals coons/coyotes off the traps, but any cats I had were well caught before I got there between 9-11.

Another thing I found interesting was the diet. You hear people hammer away at the cats love of beavers, beaver dikes, and anything to do with beavers. I've tried beaver based bait, and never had much luck at all on cats. I've tried to use full beaver carcasses for bait stations, and they are a poor draw for predators in my area as well. I see that the beaver didn't even make a % of the cats studied diets. In the future I think I'll continue to seek out high cottontail populations cedar groves, thickets, and brush piles when targeting the cats.

The thing that really stood out to me is they found that temperature was a predictor for movement, and anything less than 15 C or 59 F the movement was lowest, and any temperature above 59F the movement picked up dramatically. In my area I've always found a decreased temperature increased movement.

WadeRyan, Thanks for the analysis. Cat movement has always appeared to be unpredictable.

I'm sure Tracy has already read this study in the past, but not everyone has. Not so much on cats, but it's a very interesting study done on the coyote. It was looking at coyote response for certain scents as are outlined, but they also mention the lunar cycle.

They found no statistical evidence of lunar cycle affecting the overall attraction of lures for coyotes, but they did mention something quite significant in there if you can find it. Although no difference was found in lure attraction they did find that there was a trend in relation to barometric pressure and coyote captures.

I've been perplexed in the past as I see temperatures dropping, and expecting large catches the next morning as the change in temperature I assumed would get animals moving. I'm usually humbled as nights in the past I thought would be great were duds, and other nights I didn't plan on much I was filled up.
This was the first year after really reading through the study carefully I began to watch barometric pressure readings. I pretty much quit watching the temperatures, and only noted large dips or increases in barometric pressure.

Just as Major Boddicker over 30 years ago noted it's amazing with even just a point or two change on the barometric pressure the animal activity increases greatly. If it remains relatively stable for a few days the animal movement is average at best. I have no answer for how, but these animals will change behavior based on the barometric pressure. I've found it is more of a predictor of animal movement then the lunar cycle for myself.

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&context=gpwdcwp