Do you think they generally return to the same spot each night?

Males are wanderers and females with young of the year will stay in her home area.

Do the young of the year usually move around with the mother, in their home area?

I saw a set of lone tracks today. They didn't seem to be very large bobcat prints.

Saw a mom and two kittens a couple of weeks ago from the deer stand. The kittens were about as large as an average housecat.

If I catch a kitten this winter I hope it's bigger than a house cat.

I have snared or trapped a few females over the years and then seen or even caught the female's kittens a day or two later in the spot I caught the female. I think if they are still following the female the young will hang around for a few days. As far as to if they stay in the same spot at night , I am sure the very young kittens stay in a den or spot (barn, brush pile, even knew of a litter in a ground deer blind) when they are little. Even as they get older as the female's home range is pretty small if it has plenty food available. Males can wonder pretty far, looking for females, Doubt if they use the same spot night after night. But when their back in an area I bet they use the same bed, if they like it.

Small kittens here probably struggle to make it through the winter is my guess.

Tried taking a pic off the video...bobkitten.

This has been my observation as well- especially when the females come in heat. A big ol tom likes to spread the love far and wide.

A breeding age tom has a home range thet encompasses the home ranges of two or more females.Tylemmetry studies have been done on this.They roam around,throughout the year,keeping tabs on these females,checking their condition.This will probably intensify,prebreeding time.Sometimes a tom will show up,during that time,that you had never seen before.It is a great time to be a cat trapper.

Bobcats rarely show up on consecutive days,unless on a large carcass,but never say never.I have seen itbut don't count on it.more often,I wait 2-6 weeks for a tom to return.

I once caught a heavily furred,4# kitten in mid-December.

I'm not sure when that typical pre/breeding time is in Wisconsin

It should be some timeJanuary,AJE,at least there should be increased activity by the tom's,getting anxious.That is all I care about.Actual breeding may be Feb,even early March.I would rather trap pre-rut than in the peak of breeding which,I assume will be after your seazon closes.

I Think you were smart to chose that late season.There should be increased activity and the cats will be more prime.Clear the snow off those sets AND good luck!

If a tom is removed from an area how long does it take for another to move in usually?

Curious about this as well.

I generally take 6-8 cats from one 2500ac property. Generally about half males and half females. This has been going on for the last 2-3 years since I’ve been trapping and according to the previous trapper he took about the same numbers over the last 14 years. I’ve already taken 2 females and 1 male off this property in a 10 day time frame between hunts last week.

I took 3 cats (2 males, 1 female) off a small 35c tract in a 2 week time frame. Haven’t trapped it yet this year.

Took both a male and female last year off a 380ac tract in a 2 week time period. Start trapping it again on the 1st.

Based on these catches I’m guessing Tom home ranges overlap or there’s always Toms on the prowl.

There is no way to give a definitive answer but maybe a month,give or take.I have seen it with bobcats,bears and mountain lions (mature males).During breeding season,there may be anotber big tom in the wings.They monitor marking places and it doesn 't take them long to realize the old man is "out of town".

I'd like to find a 'marking place,' Taximan.

That,s nice but you can catch bobcats if you don't have that.Most of my bobcats have been caught by reading topography or scouting for sign.

Regarding topography, the properties I'm currently on are pretty much flat. I have access to hills in other parts of the county but am not sure if I will have time to scout them. Not much for rock around here, so finding a sort of rocky bluff might not be possible.

I should have said Geography.Flat land or mountainous,there are always edges and feaetures though in some places they can be extremely subtle.Do you have any trees that stand out as bigger than others?Any stand out features can be a point of interest.

A few big white pines.

Around here large mature trees are typically a significant component of our good cat habitat. Open areas not so much, but closer to or back in the wooded areas and the sign picks up.
Jim

I'd assume biologists have done telemetry studies on bobcat and could answer that question. My guess is not. I don't see how a cat can come through a particular area once every couple of weeks or even once a month and be bunking at the same place every night. They might have a particular tree limb they use when they come through.

Curious about this also, not so much about where they sleep, but do they walk in pretty much the same pattern each time? We set on big tom tracks and caught him in 4 checks, so I'm not so sure about the two week thing? Also we caught another big tom a day later only maybe a quarter mile away.

3 years ago I caught 3 big toms in the same 50 ft area in 9 days, two of them were in the same set only 2 days apart. I'm sure that it's rare to have that happen

On the wide open prairie it might take until a neighbor realizes the old tom isn't there any more but along a good sized creak it might be the very next week. That's what the guys I trap around and I decided. Those amazing high bank creaks change the dynamics a lot. Once they freeze over and get a skin of snow they are great for taking census and seeing how much seed stock you are leaving each year

Yes, Wi has a lot of collared bobcats. I'm not really too sure what kind of data DNR is finding with those collared cats. Maybe someone will chime in.

If you look at the dates on these pics you'll see it was a considerable amount of time between the visits this cat made. Same camera, same tree but different angles. The cat in the YouTube clip just came around again about four days ago. The last visit was early November. My camera failed to trigger but the track was right near my set which the cat ignored. I use trail cams a lot year round and have a pretty good feel for how cats use my area. Combine that with tracks on the snow and I think it gives a pretty detailed account.



https://youtu.be/VbZUx2NDg6M

Posco, curious if y’all have limits on how many can be taken or how long the season lasts. Then again it could be the amount of food in the area. I would guess more food would equal more cats or quicker routes.

Hey, Wanna Be. No limit on the cats and we have snowshoe hare in abundance this year. I noticed one area that was awash with hare tracks and I didn't see a single predator track in there over the course of a couple weeks. I was really surprised at it. We have a two month season on cats that ends at midnight tonight. Pulled my sets this morning.

That is strange with that much prey around. We don’t hunt rabbits on the plantation for just that reason. Rabbits give the predators something else to eat besides the quail...especially the aerial predators.
We also have a long season, Dec1-Feb28 no limits. But we don’t have the trappers or anyone that hunts them like y’all probably do up there.

Maine has an average take of around three hundred cats a year between hunting and trapping. I've never seen a figure on what they estimate the population to be. I'm the only one in my area that I know of who puts any serious effort into trapping them. Our cats have to be tagged by department personnel and he keeps me filled in on the activity.

High bank streams better for bobcat... Makes sense, I suppose. It creates more of a funnel?

Oh yeah! I caught 7 on a half mile of creak bank thr first yr I trapped on dry land. Th4 next yr i caught 7 or 8 more on pond dams. Always set them and set heavy
JMO anyway

Ahh, I have just the spot in mind. 1 of my 3 properties has almost exactly what you're describing, w/ the high bank, & I've seen cat sign there in past years. I think I'll scout it this weekend.