Bobcat season looms despite lower population estimate
Legal hunting area enlarged and state limit set at 500 by feds
A bobcat swims across Cedar Lake earlier this month in an image taken by Mike Chervinko. (Facebook/Mike Chervinko)
By Ted Cox
Bobcat hunting season approaches next month, even though wildlife advocates are warning about lowered estimates of the number of the wildcats in western Illinois.
Bobcats have steadily returned to Illinois in recent decades and were removed from a list of threatened species 20 years ago. Three years ago, the Rauner administration oversaw the first bobcat “harvest” in years, when 141 were taken. Two years ago, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources set a limit of 350 bobcats statewide, but 358 were taken. Last year, the statewide limit was set at 375, but 343 were taken in the season ending in February.
This year, the bobcat season runs from Nov. 10 to Feb. 15. Under Gov. Pritzker, the boundaries have been set at the original borders from three years ago, which actually expands the legal range and basically bans bobcat hunting only in the northeast quarter of the state, with U.S. Route 51 acting as the border to the west and U.S. Route 36 to the south. The only limit is likewise the original one set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 500 statewide, with 1,000 bobcat-hunting permits, allowing one to be taken per person, given out from a lottery that took place in September.
“Under Pritzker, the IDNR has opened up more of the state to bobcat hunting,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council. “There really hasn’t been any discussion I’m aware of with the Pritzker administration of maybe scaling this back.
“It’s a huge concern,” she added. “I really think that decision was based on politics and not on science.”
According to Walling, the original decision to allow a bobcat season was based on a population estimate taken south of Interstate 64, which was “used to model for the whole state.” Other parts of Illinois, however, are quite a bit different from the wilds of the Shawnee National Forest.
“There’s definitely more research that needs to be done,” Walling said. “There’s absolute scientific certainty in Illinois that bobcats have not expanded to all areas of prime bobcat habitat that are in the state.”
Thus the importance of a recent study released in June out of Western Illinois University in Macomb, which dramatically lowered the estimated bobcat population in the region. Using camera-trapping data from a fragmented section of west-central Illinois including parts of Hancock, McDonough, Fulton, and Schuyler counties, it estimated bobcat density at 1.4 per 100 square kilometers, “considerably below previously reported densities within the state,” estimated at 30.5 per 100 square kilometers, “and among the lowest yet recorded for the species.”
Jennifer Kuroda, of the Illinois Bobcat Foundation, pointed out the study claimed to be “more accurate” than previous studies elsewhere in the state, some of which relied on anecdotal data from hunters and other residents. Both Kuroda and Walling cited how the National Bobcat Rescue Association has found that bobcats — which are only slightly larger than domestic cats, with a head-body length of 25 to 35 inches and a weight between 15 and 30 pounds — are commonly misidentified as what are really feral cats.
“That happens all the time,” Kuroda said. “Hunters tend to be little more educated in terms of wildlife, but they also still have cases of misidentification.”
IDNR spokeswoman Rachel Torbert acknowledged that the state has used hunter surveys, some dating back to the 1990s, as well as university studies. “The data acquired from multiple sources adds confidence that surveys and research are accurately informing the department’s management decisions,” she said, calling the most recent WIU study “just one data point that the department will consider when making decisions about the future management of bobcats.”
Torbert added that “if our biologists determine that a population is being over-harvested, they have the ability to adjust season length, number of permits issued, and opening/closing counties or areas to address those concerns.”
Kuroda said the low density of bobcats in western Illinois could show that they’re just beginning to colonize the area. “If that’s the case,” she said, “then you really shouldn’t be hunting them.”
Walling said the WIU study “really makes clear that the population of bobcats in western Illinois are not recovered enough to sustain the hunting season.” Along with the Illinois Bobcat Foundation and other wildlife groups, they’re asking IDNR to “reconsider the policy they’ve taken on bobcat hunting. It was a mistake to open up the season to the full state in the first place, and now we have more science” showing the scarcity of bobcats in some of the legal hunting area.
“I would like to see a moratorium on hunting until they figure out what is our estimated population,” Kuroda said. “What’s the management plan? Because I don’t know that they have a management plan written.”
Walling acknowledged it’s a “hot” issue, and a potentially thorny one for the Pritzker administration in balancing the positions between hunters and trappers on the one side and wildlife activists and cat lovers on the other. She added, “I think people at DNR are a little bit sick of it.”
Stan McTaggart, IDNR wildlife diversity program manager, sent a letter in response to Kuroda justifying use of the federally set limit of 500 bobcats for the upcoming season. “We will stay below this number,” he stated. “Any change in the number of bobcats harvested in 2019-2020 will be the result of changes in the success rate of permit holders. We continue to manage a conservative and highly regulated bobcat season to ensure a healthy and growing bobcat population across the state for generations to come.”
Kuroda pointed out, however, that the third season last year actually saw a decline from the year before, in spite of an increased limit overall, and she added, “I suspect in this season we won’t see as many either,” even with the limit now increased to 500.
Jack Darin, director of the Sierra Club’s Illinois Chapter, agreed that the current data call for a cautious approach. “When the Rauner administration authorized hunting and trapping bobcats in Illinois, they offered little if any scientific evidence supporting killing these recently endangered animals,” he said. “This latest study unfortunately suggests that bobcats could be headed back to the Illinois endangered-species list if we don't listen to science in managing their return to Illinois. We urge Illinois DNR to review these findings and take whatever steps necessary, including halting the taking of bobcats, that are supported by science to ensure the rull recovery of this important predator in Illinois's ecosystems.”
Illinois bobcat aficionados were thrilled earlier this week when The Southern Illinoisan ran a story about a clearly identified bobcat — with little more than its head, back, and distinctive bobtail visible — swimming across Cedar Lake outside Carbondale. The shot was taken the previous Monday by Mike Chervinko.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” Kuroda said. “Bobcats do swim. It’s not really rare, but it’s definitely rare to see in person, and it’s more rare to be able to capture that image.”