Bobcat numbers are increasing in Illinois

[April 15, 2023]  By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – The bobcat population in Illinois seems to be growing. No one knows for sure, says Jennifer Kuroda, founder of the Illinois Bobcat Foundation.

A lifelong resident of Rockford, Kuroda said she’s never seen one when she has been out hiking. Bobcats don’t want to be around people, she said.

“Bobcats are very reclusive. It is easy to walk right by one. They are very reluctant to reveal themselves,” Kuroda said.

Kuroda blames the media for making people afraid of bobcats.

“On the news, they escalate the dangers of bobcats. A hundred percent of the attacks are from bobcats that have rabies,” Kuroda said. “A fox or a raccoon or any rabid animal is going to come after you.”

Bobcats won’t hurt children or pets. They might eat a backyard chicken, but they prefer voles and other rodents.

“Bobcats are excellent for natural rodent control,” she said. “Bobcats are not very big. The biggest ones are twice the size of a housecat”

A big male lucky enough to live in a habitat with plenty of rodents to eat can weigh up to 40 pounds, she said. But many bobcats are much smaller. Last year when Kuroda was out with a naturalist, they collared a full-grown female that only weighed 14 pounds.

“She was the size of a housecat,” Kuroda said.

In the Midwest, bobcats are rare because they were over hunted to near extinction in the 20th Century. In the 1960s and 1970s, states put bobcats on the protected species lists and they made a comeback. No one knows exactly how many bobcats live in Illinois now. A couple of years ago, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources had posted that there were 3,000 to 5,000 in the state.

Some hunters blame bobcats for the drop in the state wild turkey population, Kuroda said.

“That is nonsense,” she said. “Habitat loss is the main thing affecting turkeys.”

In 2016, to Kuroda’s dismay and sadness, the Illinois legislature made bobcat hunting and trapping legal again. In 2022, people went online to buy $5 pelt permits for 367 bobcat kills. Fifty-two percent of the bobcats were killed by hunters. The rest were trapped or killed on the roads.

Bobcats have been spotted in the Chicago suburbs recently, Kuroda said.

“The forest preserves there are so well connected that it is not surprising that bobcats are moving through there, or even denning,” she said.

People who really want to see a bobcat in the wild are much more likely to see one in southern Illinois, Kuroda said. Bobcats like the habitat of the Shawnee National Forest. Dawn or dusk are the best times to spot one, she said. For an even better chance to see one, take a trip to Kiawah Island, South Carolina. About 30 bobcats live on the island and the residents love them, Kuroda said.

“They see them out on the golf course,” she said.