Brian, I think they are up to 37 based on last report I received. I would ask how many the bears have but not sure if the hound guys track that.

Thanks keets and bbusser for joining the conversation.

Couldn't one say the same about increasing the limit? So why the arbitrary number? Isn't it holding you back from realizing the true potential? I think MN has way better bobcat habitat than WI. Just a myth?

I think the Central Forest Zone has as good, if not better bobcat habitat than the north. There tends to be a lot of clear cut with pulp wood in that area. Anybody on here trapping that area that could provide input as far as incidentals they have caught?

Bryce, the DNR has that information all plastered on their supporting documents for bear. In the last bear task force minutes posted, there was talk about how other states gave out more permits. See a trend here?

Speaking of incidentals Brian, I wonder if anyone of the guys on here will accomplish this this year?
http://www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/2015/12/07/trapper-makes-rare-wild-cat-catch/76690214/

My hats off to him for getting those bobcat collared. Hopefully, the research will help get bobcat figured out in time for him to have a chance or two to actually harvest a cat.

Any one else have some questions they would like to see asked, or are they holding out on me so they can ask themselves?

Hey all, a little information on incidentals. We want to get our hands on them and learn all we can. We will be collaring wolves statewide (including dispersing animals). We will continue to collar bobcat in the 12 county area in the northern zone. This year, we are starting a similar effort in SW Wisconsin in a 8 county area. Many of your will get the following mailings in the next few weeks (depending on where you live). They may change a bit, but will be similar to this. If you can't read the images, just wait, you'll get a copy in the mail right before season opens.
I am unable to respond in any timely manor on this board, so feel free to email with any questions.
Nathan
nathanm.roberts@wiscosnin.gov

Thanks Nathan. What advantages are there from these collars? Beside survival rate & movement? The costs associated with with this program must surly be high? And does it benefit population counts?

I believe these collars are not put on tight enough therefor survival rates are way too high.

Thanks Nathan for that information. I was wondering when it was going to get posted on the DNR site.

Interesting take Diggerman. Curious to hear more on your theory. If you have the numbers, throw them up. Always willing to listen to an the other side.

Anyone know the breakdown of the cats that were collared on public versus private? Wonder if the cats harvested came from private/public? Another couple good questions to ask.

I know of the three harvested, one was a depredation cat. Wonder if these complaints have risen over the last 20 years or if the northerners just apply same rules as wolves?

Wonder if Gary is going to run a long line on coyotes at the starting bell so he can contribute to the study since that must be close to home.

Scuuuuse me, Thought we were still talkin wolves.

No worries as we tend to go a little off topic Diggerman. We are constantly going back to the animals that have a season. Sure would be nice if we could go back to having a wolf season in this state. Too bad politics got in the way of sound science. I had hoped Johnson could help navigate the bill through the senate. Sure wasn't because of lack of effort on his part. Only wish was that his counterpart on the other side of the isle would have lent a hand. Elections have consequences and I am surprised this issue hasn't been talked about more in this election.

The collars serve a little different purpose for bobcat than they do wolf. They are not cheap, but we have shifted over to GPS collars. Part of the reason for that is that there is a higher upfront cost, but the cost to monitor is way cheaper. Once the collar is on, it communicated to a satellite and we no longer have to drive, or fly, around to monitor the critter. This changes the “per location fix” cost to a fraction of what it was a couple years ago.
For wolves, the collars help up identify packs, pack territory, and ultimately pack size (that leads to overall counts). The counts we use are “minimum” over-winter counts. So, the more collars we have out, the better the count. Another way to look at the count is the bare minimum we can say – we literally counted at least that many. We do not use estimates yet, but will get there. I won’t say any more about wolves.
For bobcat, we are getting at population size and status. We have collared 36 so far. Are estimates of annual survivorship is 0.76. Now, this gets important because we use population models to estimate how many we have, and how many we can take. We generally estimate that the harvest is about 20%, then there is some illegal take and natural mortality. So, if we find that total mortality is 24%, which is less than we assume so; if the trend holds, that suggest that the population size is not what we assume either. The other important information we are gathering is habitat use, home range size, and home range overlap. Generally, it is assumed that only some portion of the landscape is suitable bobcat habitat. We further assume that home ranges don’t overlap. Given these, there is a limit to the population size. There is only so much room. What we are learning here, and why we want to collar more, is that ‘cats use almost any type of habitat. We also see quite a bit of overlap.
That is a long way of saying that the more we know, the less we rely on assumptions and can make the most informed decisions possible (and withstand legal challenges).
-Nathan

I wonder if there are counties that we are lacking a good sample size?

How many cats do we have collared in our top counties based on harvest?

What percent can we harvest before we impact population?

So many questions for this chat, I might need help asking all of them. It was a bobcat research chat right, right?

Nathan I/we eagerly await your results.

Thank you for taking the time to inform us.

And how far are those collared cats ranging? Probably dependent on sex & age? Have any dispersed to different areas/counties altogether?

What a breath of fresh air some one from the DNR actually talking to us. Thanks Nathan

Do we have any district 9 guys that might have the opportunity to participate in the new study area?

I know our northern trappers on here were well represented when it came to collaring cats.

I know a guy that caught & released a cat in Bagely area last year.

So I went back and checked my notes from the WTA meeting to see which counties we were lacking a good sample size in the north. It looks like Ashland, Sawyer, and Rusk were counties that lacked good representation. We have any land trappers up that way?

When I pulled my notes Brian, it looks like the females averaged about 18 sq miles and males averaged 29 sq miles. They did have one Female outlier that had a home range of 109 sq miles.

Since they didn't calculate a home range for one transient male shows they will cover some serious ground if needed. They also showed another cat that dispersed and ended up only a short distance away from the mother's home range.

Someone asked about the native's harvest. GLIFWC pushes the following report on their website.

https://data.glifwc.org/archive.bio/Administrative%20Report%2016-10.pdf