Bobcat

is a species of carnivorous mammal in the family Felidae, one of the two species of lynx found in North America. It remains in part of its original range, but populations are vulnerable to local extinction (“extirpation”) because of coyotes and domestic animals.

Although bobcats have been hunted extensively by humans, both for sport and for their fur, their population has proved resilient, although it is declining in some areas.

Thirteen subspecies of bobcat have historically been recognised on the basis of morphological characteristics:

• L. r. rufus (Schreber) – eastern and midwestern United States.
• L. r. gigas (Bangs) – from northern New York to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
• L. r. floridanus (Rafinesque) – south-eastern United States and the interior of the Mississippi Valley, as far as south-western Missouri and southern Illinois.
• L. r. superiorensis (Peterson & Downing) – western Great Lakes area, including the upper part of Michigan, Wisconsin, southern Ontario and most of Minnesota.
• L. r. baileyi (Merriam) – south-western United States and north-western Mexico.
• L. r. californicus (Mearns) – California west of the Sierra Nevada.
  L. r. mohavensis (B. Anderson) – Mojave Desert of California.
• L. r. escuinapae (J. A. Allen) – central Mexico, with a northern extension along the west coast to southern Sonora.
• L. r. fasciatus (Rafinesque) – Oregon, Washington west of the Cascade Range, north-western California and south-western British Columbia.
• L. r. oaxacensis (Goodwin) – Oaxaca.
• L. r. pallescens (Merriam) – north-western United States and southern British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
  L. r. peninsularis (Thomas) – Baja California.
• L. r. texensis (Mearns) – western Louisiana, Texas, south-central Oklahoma, and south into Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila. This division into subspecies has been challenged, given the lack of clear geographical breaks in their ranges and the minor differences between the subspecies. The latest revision of cat taxonomy, based on phylogeographic and genetic studies, recognises only two subspecies, although the status of the Mexican bobcats (Lynx rufus esquinapae and Lynx rufus oaxacensis) is still under review:
• Lynx rufus rufus – east of the Great Plains, North America.
• Lynx rufus fasciatus – west of the Great Plains, North America.

It is found in a wide variety of habitats, ranging from boreal forests in the north of its range to scrubland and semi-deserts in the south. By contrast, it avoids extensive farmland and grasslands. It usually takes shelter and breeds in areas of dense vegetation, rocky outcrops, caves and other covered places.

It feeds mainly on hares and rabbits and, to a lesser extent, on rodents and ungulates. Occasionally it behaves as a scavenger, feeding on prey killed by other predators. Although it prefers to feed on rabbits and hares, it hunts everything from insects and small rodents to deer. The choice of prey depends on location, habitat and season, as well as on how abundant that prey is.

Males usually cover the territory of one or several females, showing polygynous behaviour. The bobcat's mating season is between February and March (although it can vary with latitude, from winter to spring), and the gestation period is approximately two months (the young are born two months after conception). The cubs stay with their mother until they are about nine months old, when they become independent and disperse in search of their own territory.

The bobcat is thought to have evolved from the Eurasian lynx, which crossed into North America over the Bering land bridge during the Pleistocene, with the arrival of ancestors some 2.6 million years ago. The first wave moved into the southern part of North America, which was soon cut off from the north by glaciers. This population evolved into the modern bobcats about 20,000 years ago. A second population arrived from Asia and settled in the north, becoming the modern Canada lynx. Hybridisation between the bobcat and the Canada lynx can sometimes occur.