Yesterday I was scouting some new ground looking for bobcat sign. I was tracking a bobcat in the snow up a drainage. Lo and behold, I find a bobcat toilet under a tree that had some dirt still exposed in the root system. I knew what it was immediately. Just like I've seen my cat do over the years. Anyway For me, this is the 1st time I've ever seen a bobcat toilet. Now what? How would you set it?

Three possible answers: Snare the trail to the toilet or blind set the toilet. I’ve done both with great success. The other is gather up cat scat and make a new toilet very close by and then put fresh cat urine on the scat with a trap or two.

Down here that’s the jackpot for cats. Put a trap right beside the scat and blend as natural as possible. If you can use a drag that’ll preserve that spot after a catch.
Don’t be afraid to put a gaudy looking set in close by they will notice. My best off a toilet is 4 cats and a fox off a scat set. Another cat and fox off the gaudy dirt hole across from it. But, we have cats like we have possums.

I have high hopes for this location. I have a camera on it but I was having some issues. I went out there to resolve the camera issue. I could see something in the trap from a distance so I got a little excited. I rushed down there and I got my hopes crushed. Porky decided the check out the set 1st. I put him down, re-set and and fixed the camera issue. Finger's crossed the cat will come back.

Good luck on the remake. My experience with porcupine remakes is the set is ruined after a porcupine catch. But maybe leave it and see what happens. I speak only from experience with canines not going into a porcupine remake.

one turd on the ground does not a toilet make...

bobcats do not just travel from toilet to toilet. They poop anywhere the urge strikes, at a toilet and otherwise. If you just found one random turd, your chances there are just fair to poor. For one turd, set up a real bobcat set to draw him in, as he's not likely to walk close enough for a blind set using that turd as an attractor.

Didn’t see where he said one turd. He did say toilet which means multiple piles, or at least that’s what I call a toilet. Where did you read one turd?

Never said that he said that. Making the point that if it is only one turd, it would not be likely to be a good set. Alot of people don't know what a bobcat toilet is.

At the time I did not count turds. It was a pile of snow so it was hard to count nor did I try because I did not want to mess it up. To me it was just a place a where a Bobcat has used the bathroom. It was more fresh sign that I had seen the last month on another property. That property looked very Catty but they just weren't there. 1 set of tracks in a month and no pics. Big property. This new property had tracks in every drainage plus the "toilet". Plus it has trapping history from friends of mine who used to trap it but no longer trap. I do know Bobcats are there now and they have been there in the past. Fingers crossed. Anyway, the snow is all gone. Judging from the re-set, the cat just used that tree that one time. It was the only place that had any dry dirt. Maybe the porky messed it up. We will see. I will leave that set in in there till the quota closes. I'll leave the camera in there for Feb and March just to see if it comes back. In 2 years I still do not have a pic of a cat. It's like they are ghosts.

You’ll know a toilet when you find one…lots and lots of scat. Down here one turd will net you a cat. If I’m riding and see a turd I’m picking it up. I have a different bag for each property I trap and never use turds I find on that property. I go as far to keep my urines separate too, males in one bottle and females in another. It doesn’t seem to make a difference, I just do that if I have 2 sets near each other. One gets a squirt of male and the other gets female on the turds.

I dont know if it’s because their preferred travel patterns are so similar or because the bobcats are attracted to the porcupine smells (I do find a LOT of quills in bobcats).

But, if I got a porcupine in a set at a location (and I usually have 2-4 sets at a location) that is almost always the set I’ll catch a cat in.

As for toilets, count me as the odd man out not getting terribly excited about them.

Good places to catch females and kittens (or females with kittens) in my experience.


But, it’s not bad to know their whereabouts come the rut.

You must have a lot more Cats in your GA than we do here in MT. In my area we are allowed 100 cats. In Wild Idaho's area it's 25 Cats. Between the 2 areas, hundreds of square miles if not thousands. Finding one is easier said than done. I'll keep looking though.

1simplemann I was curious so I looked it up. Region 4 is 30,677 square miles. Region 6 is 22,418

Toilets to me just mean that animals are in the area and you will likely connect on some if you stay a while. I don't set directly on toilets. I set the trails and habitat in that area. I make do with what is local and get to work making a couple sets then move on. High ground vantage points, trails, prey cover and any other outstanding features is what I focus upon.

[quote=Wild_Idaho]1simplemann I was curious so I looked it up. Region 4 is 30,677 square miles. Region 6 is 22,418[/quote
Thanks for checking. I knew it was big but I didn't realize that it was that big! 53K total square miles. 125 cats allowed total. That works out to a little more than 2 cats per 1K square miles. Not a great population density. John told me he once caught 140 cats in one year in SC. Big difference between here and there. Nice work in catching 2 this year!

BJ,
Thanks for the advice. Working on doing just that. It's a little challenging right now. New property, no snow and limited time w/ the season end rapidly approaching.

Yeah it tells me they aren't super thick round these parts. Well, keep us posted on how your cat season rounds out! Are you going to be in Livingston for the fur sale?

1S, i realize your terrain & cat density is much different from mine, but i bet the cats are not.

Brush lines that come to a corner and are adjacent to a pasture are cat hotspots.
I consistently see more cats at those locations than anywhere else during hunting season.
It is also the number one catch location when I am targeting coyotes.
Flats with coyote poop & urine pick up the most cats by far.

Sometime the least conventional sets & spots are the most productive.
That has certainly been the case here.

Good Luck !