Bobcats seem to like pursuing turkeys

Next time I Bobcat hunt I might put out a turkey decoy & call like a turkey. I called in a Bobcat this spring turkey hunting. The other night my neighbor was bowhunting & a bobcat came by chasing after a group of turkeys. He didn't think it got one but he thought it was interesting to watch. Bobcat seem to be quite a success story in Wisconsin. The harvest quota in the southern Zone has increased every year since the season started 7 years or so ago.

If I remember correctly, you put in a Herculean effort trying to catch a cat last year but came up short. Did you draw another tag this year?

A few years ago a guide friend had a Bobcat come leaping into the ground blind while calling for a turkey hunting client. The Bobcat continued on it's way that boring and the boys did not need any more coffee to stay awake for the day.

Mac

No doubt.

I've called Coyotes in twice while calling for Turkeys.

We are getting an overload of cats here in southwestern Indiana with no season.

I always said if there’s turkeys there’s bobcats here. Followed many in the snow as they sit up on a high bank of a creek while turkey walked below. They’d stalk em then there’d be a puff of feathers on the ice.

Here in Nebraska pack rats are the only thing I’ve seen get more attention than turkeys.

I think the bobcats have a lot to do with our declining turkey numbers. I’ve found more than once where a turkey had been killed and always suspected it was a cat

Wade is spot on. Turkey’s equal cats. State dumped turkeys at our farm in 1987 when they began reintroducing them to western Kansas. Older brother and I had been trapping hard on the creeks as kids and never seen cat sign. Within 2-3 years of them dumping those birds we both were constantly catching cats.

I think the cats ate all the turkeys in the Allegheny National Forest. Haven't seen a turkey up there for 10 years.

Trees are common thread for both species. Turkeys need big mature trees to roost. Cats seem to prefer similar habitat. The study on stomach contents of cats by Nebr G&P on trapped cats showed number one prey found in stomachs was rabbits.

They will have a lot to do with declining deer numbers as well if the bobcat cat population gets strong. They are heck on fawns and darn good at finding them.

Osky

Bobcats are hunting turkey mainly as they come off roost. I also think bobcats are controlling turkey numbers.
Bobcats use to hunt mainly rabbits and mice at night now they hunt turkey all morning. I think I like turkey better than mice and rats.

We've got tons of turkeys in S.E. Ohio and the bobcats seem to be comin' on strong, too. There are at least two cats haunting my 20 acres there. I heard a rumor that O.D.N.R., a couple of years ago, were talking about a limited trapping season on them, but nothing ever came of it. I'd think I'd died and gone to heaven if I could draw a tag and be able to set for one! They need to hurry it up though. I've got a serious case of O.L.D.

I had a flock of around thirty hens running around my place three years ago, I saw one this spring. I've never seen so much cat sign as I did last season and I get quite a few pics on my cameras. I was blaming it mostly on the heavy snows but I don't doubt the cats put a pretty good ding in the population as well.

I dont think the Bobcats can keep up around here!

Good friend told me "When I find chukars I find cats".

I said "I ain't got no chukars".

He said "You got turkeys right?"

I replied "I do".

He said "Turkeys are just big chukars"

He wasn't lying. I always ask the land owners if they know where the turkeys roost, if they do, good chance you'll find the cats close by.

Yeah they put the hurt on turkeys as well as everything else. Here in NW MO our turkey numbers have been devastated. In the 80's the turkey population built up and in the 90's and early 00's it was amazing. Since mid 00's the population has steadily declined. I haven't seen a turkey since May. Our department of conservation will say that the turkeys were over abundant and they have came back down to habitat sustainable numbers. Rubbish. For 15 years the land was able to support a certain turkey population but really wasn't supposed to? Yes nest raiders get some but there have always been healthy populations of those. Coyotes and bobcats. Like your states, ours protected the bobcat until their numbers were established. I am fine with having bobcats but they do thin out populations. I am afraid they really hurt the poult population.

I would say the same thing- if you have turkeys and no bobcat they are on the way and probably soon. I am old enough to remember the re-stocking of turkey in Kansas and for a few years they would roost head high in a low but stout limb. As the bobcats started showing up at the fur buyers, I noticed 2 things. 1) I decided I wanted to be a cat trapper and 2) the turkey started roosting 50 ft in the air.

I am convinced that turkey are one of the bobcats fav and if I find a roost with lots of feathers and droppings I set the trails or ridge lines in and out.

Increased bobcat numbers climbed right along with the increasing turkey expansion in my area. Think they are a gap food source in winter when rabbits go down.

That would make sense. If I can smell a roost you know the cats are crafty enough to get fresh meat during the winter.

I wonder if bobcats & fisher grab turkeys off the roost very often. That would be a noisy conundrum.

Down here cat catches make plantation managers more happy than coyotes. Cats and coons rank the top spot for for nesting predators, that includes quail and turkeys. I’ve always said I can drop a dog and a cat off in the middle of 100K acres and that dog will starve to death and the cat will actually gain weight and grow longer fur.