Remote cameras lead wildlife experts to believe Bobcat populations remain critically low in Central and Western New York

How is the Bobcat population doing across New York State?

There may be some fresh insight to that question, thanks to one of the latest publications from Cornell University.

With thousands of strategically placed cameras covering more than 27,000 square miles in central and western New York, biologists have evidence that bobcat populations remain critically low in those regions.

“Bobcats probably displayed one of the more concerning trends that we saw,” said lead author Joshua Twining, a postdoctoral researcher in the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (NYCFWRU), a U.S. Geological Survey unit on campus led by Angela Fuller, professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).

In statistical scrutiny, occupancy probabilities – important for managing wildlife species and conservation – can range from zero to one.

Numbers closer to one mean that a species likely occurs in an area; zero is certainty of its absence.

From 2014 to 2021, the estimated mean predicted probability of occupancy for historically extirpated bobcats in central and western New York ranged from a low of 0.02 in 2015 to a high of 0.12 in 2019, and then back down to 0.05 in 2021, according to motion-tripped photographic data.

New York State DEC says that Bobcats are prized for their pelts.

Depending on the region, such as areas along the Pennsylvania border, New York State offers both hunting and trapping seasons for Bobcats.

Cornell University image.