Bobcat Season?

[manifest destiny]

IBTL!
What? Too soon?

To me, 250 cats sounds like a lot for an animal most have never witnessed in person. But I note that deer and turkey sometimes seem like a dime per dozen, and those animals are "managed", proving managed and over-hunted are not synonymous. I assume the state biologist has no vested interest in over-hunting of any native creature.

 

[HoosierHunter07]

IBTL!
What? Too soon?

To me, 250 cats sounds like a lot for an animal most have never witnessed in person. But I note that deer and turkey sometimes seem like a dime per dozen, and those animals are "managed", proving managed and over-hunted are not synonymous. I assume the state biologist has no vested interest in over-hunting of any native creature.

250 seems pretty low to me. The otter limit is 750 and I've never seen one in the wild (at least not in a trap). I also never saw a beaver in Indiana until I was 32 and they're a nuisance in some areas. But I've seen multiple bobcats with my own eyes.

I get more bobcats on trailcams than I do coyotes. That's what I told the DNR when I sent them all my pics and logged sightings.

 

[manifest destiny]

250 seems pretty low to me. The otter limit is 750 and I've never seen one in the wild (at least not in a trap). I also never saw a beaver in Indiana until I was 32 and they're a nuisance in some areas. But I've seen multiple bobcats with my own eyes.

I get more bobcats on trailcams than I do coyotes. That's what I told the DNR when I sent them all my pics and logged sightings.

Well, 250 cats harvested, if divided equally across all IN counties is less than 3/county. The same 250 cats divided equally across the 40 counties allowed to harvest is more than 6/county. Six less cats in Monroe county wouldn't seem noticable. But could Decatur county give up six cats and still have a breeding population left?

The otter harvest is going up to 750 statewide. In effect, bobcat harvest is 1/3 that of otters but in less than 1/2 the area. That sounds like a lot given that the state provided no population data this year while debating the legislation and claimed in 2019 that it did not "have the scientific data to support a sustainable bobcat season". I don't know which Indiana to believe, the 2019 one, or the 2024 one but I sure would like a bad-*** bobcat trophy. I'd settle for buying a pelt. The state claims they sell for $100.