Bobcats (Lynx rufus) were extirpated from Ohio by the mid-1800s and have only recently recolonized the state, raising the question of whether a legal harvest season could be sustainably introduced. This study builds a spatial population simulation model that combines habitat suitability and road-mortality risk with bobcat vital rates to project the population’s viability over the next 40 years under a range of harvest and road-mortality scenarios.
The baseline simulations (no harvest, current road mortality only) showed no meaningful extinction risk. But as harvest intensity increased — especially when adults were targeted rather than all age classes — population trajectories became more uncertain and more projections showed decline, particularly when combined with anticipated increases in road mortality. The results give Ohio wildlife managers a quantitative starting point for weighing harvest options against this still-recovering population’s resilience.
Citation: Dyck, M.A., Shoemaker, K.T., Dennison, C.C., Popescu, V.D. 2023. Simulated effects of roadkill and harvest on the viability of a recovering bobcat population. Journal of Wildlife Management 87(7):e22460. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22460