Indiana’s Natural Resources Commission has approved a bobcat trapping season in 40 southern Indiana counties, including Dearborn, Franklin, Ohio, Ripley, and Switzerland.
The season will run from Nov. 8 to Jan. 31. Licensed trappers will be allowed to harvest one bobcat per year, up to a statewide maximum of 250 bobcats. State lawmakers mandated the department formulate rules for a trapping season in 2024. The rules are currently awaiting final signatures from Gov. Mike Braun and Attorney General Mike Rokita.
"There's a lot of us super excited about it. We've been having to release these animals for years," said Indiana State Trappers Association Board member Nick Erny, while advocating for the trapping season.
He expects the bag limit will be increased in the coming years.
While the Indiana DNR says the bobcat population is sufficient to prevent threats of extinction, Indiana Public Broadcasting reports critics, like Samantha Chapman with Humane World for Animals, argue there isn’t adequate population data. That, she said, contradicts science-based wildlife conservation.
Jack Sutton is executive director of the Oak Heritage Conservancy, which manages 15 nature preserves across southeast Indiana, including its largest, Hilltop Preserve, in West Harrison, Ind., just across the state line from Ohio. He says the conservancy has spotted bobcats on its trail cameras at some locations.
"Bobcats are a phenomenal success story," he says. "They were listed on the state's endangered species list in 1969 but in 2005 they were de-listed. In the past 20 years, their population has grown. The fact that DNR is taking steps to add them to the [list of] animals that are permitted to be trapped — I think it demonstrates how the population has grown and is doing quite well."
That said, he doesn't expect the conservancy will allow trapping on its lands.
Could this affect Ohio's bobcat population?
Sutton suggests it might be a good idea to study how trapping in Indiana may or may not affect the bobcat population in Ohio.
Bobcats are native to Ohio but were extirpated from the state by the 1850s, meaning while they weren't extinct, there weren't any here. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reports the wild cat species began repopulating in the mid-1900s, but sightings are more frequent in the southern and eastern parts of the state.
"There's probably some bobcats coming in from from the west through Indiana," says Wildlife Management Supervisor Brett Beatty of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Wildlife Division’s District 5. "Honestly, there's no way to know just how much [trapping in Indiana] would impact our population directly, especially as our populations get more established here and have their own territories."
He says it's uncertain if hunting in those Indiana counties near Ohio could force bobcats to extend their territories into Ohio.
"I have full confidence in Indiana DNR to continue to monitor their population through their research and harvest data, and then we can see the results, and we'll get a good feel for what's happening over there," he adds. "Through our sightings and reports that we receive — particularly on the border counties there — we can do a little side-by-side and see if there's any impact."
The most recent report from the state, dated September 2023, states the Division of Wildlife had 561 confirmed sightings of bobcats in 2021. Sightings are largely confirmed using trail or security cameras and roadkill reports.
Bobcats have been confirmed in 81 of Ohio's 88 counties, including all counties in southwest Ohio. Warren County was the most recent to join the list, with the first confirmed sighting coming in 2021.
The ODNR in 2018 considered reopening a bobcat trapping season but those plans were indefinitely put on hold after public opposition to the proposal. Bobcats were removed from Ohio's threatened species list in 2014.
A 2023 report from researchers at Ohio University concluded the state's bobcat population could withstand limited harvesting. It noted a high level of monitoring would be required to ensure the population remained stable.
More about bobcats
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, bobcats are generally solitary creatures. They eat rabbits, hares, rodents (squirrels, woodrats, mice, voles), deer, and less commonly, birds, reptiles, insects, and eggs.
Beatty says bobcats present minimal risk to your household pets.
"Typically, the only interactions I see would be folks with poultry, whether it be backyard chickens or ducks or something like that, that sometimes get predated by bobcats. Folks [should] make sure their pen is sound, that nothing can get in or they can't get out, just doing good husbandry practice with your backyard birds," he says.
They breed year-round, though most usually from December to May. Offspring born in the spring and summer are usually ready to head out on their own by fall or winter. The animals can weigh 15-30 pounds and be about 30-50 inches long, with short tails of about 4-5 inches.
You can report bobcat sightings using the ODNR Wildlife Reporting Tool.
