There was a time a few decades ago when seeing a bobcat was a rare sight, but nowadays, you can find one running around almost anywhere. These little furballs can now be found in the arid deserts of Mexico, the temperate forests and mountains of the US, and the warmer parts of Canada.
Part of this is due to government conservation efforts, but another is because of how adaptable these cats are. Their population has fluctuated and declined several times in the last few centuries, but bobcats have shown they can survive in various climates and bounce back.
Are Bobcats Adaptable?
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Bobcats have an extensive range spanning every country in North America. Since they cover so much ground, these tough cats have experienced and adapted to many different habitats, including:
- Deserts
- Mountains
- Swamps
- Grasslands
- Forests
A big part of why they have managed to survive and regrow their population is their adaptability. Bobcats can find and acclimate themselves to an entirely new habitat relatively easily.
What Kind Of Terrain Do Bobcats Prefer?
Although they can live in various environments, bobcats gravitate to certain areas. These are the places that are best suited for their lifestyle and natural abilities.
Forests
Wooded areas are probably the best environments for bobcats to live in. These places are well suited for their hunting techniques which involve laying and waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. There are plenty of places to hide in the woods, such as trees, bushes, and rocks.
Since bobcats are not particularly large, they need plenty of small animals to hunt. Thankfully forests are full of squirrels and rabbits that can keep these pint-sized predators well-fed.
Aside from food, shelter is also essential; thankfully, the woods provide them with that. Places like hollowed trees, rocky outcroppings, and caves can make for dens for them. The trees also make it easier for them to establish their territory since they can easily show their presence by leaving scratch marks on the tree trunks.
Mountains
Despite being predators, bobcats are pretty shy and prefer to remain hidden, and mountains, especially forested mountains, make a perfect habitat for them. The high peaks and many hiding places allow these cats to live the solitary lifestyle they want. More importantly, it allows them to stay away from humans.
These powerful cats can easily jump and climb steep slopes thanks to their sharp claws and long legs. A mountain also offers plenty of rocky outcroppings and caves that bobcats can make their home.
Deserts
While not their top choice, bobcats can survive in the desert thanks to a few handy adaptations. You would think the heat would be an issue, but thanks to their nocturnal lifestyle, these clever felines sleep through the worst of the heat and hunt when it is cool at night.
Their fur also comes in handy since it can come in browns and reddish-tints, allowing them to camouflage in the desert even without as much cover as in the forests.
Food and hunting aren’t that much of a problem, as plenty of small rodents wander the sands. Many deserts also have a decent number of desert plants and shade trees, which give these felines a place to hide and pounce on prey.
Bobcats also have excellent hearing thanks to the tufts on their ears, allowing them to pick up sounds from far away. In the desert, excellent hearing can be a crucial factor for hunting.
Swamps
A lot of the advantages that enable bobcats to thrive in forests also carry over to swamps. As highly biodiverse areas, swamps and wetlands offer many advantages for bobcats, such as an abundance of food and plenty of foliage to use as shelter and cover.
The one issue that might exist is the many ponds and rivers in a swamp. As any cat owner can confirm, felines don’t like getting wet, and bobcats are no exception. Thankfully, these clever cats have figured out a way to avoid bodies of water by just leaping over them.
Grasslands
Bobcats can also survive in the open grasslands. Here their small size and excellent senses play a huge role in their success. As they are smaller than other predators, they have an easier time hiding in tall grass. That allows them to keep the element of surprise when hunting and ambushing prey.
Meanwhile, their impressive hearing and vision are very useful in grasslands. On flat ground, they have an easier time finding game. However, flat plains don’t offer the same level of shelter and protection as forests, which might be a problem.
What Kind of Terrain Will Bobcats Not Live In
While highly adaptable, even bobcats have limits in their habitats. There are still some places where even bobcats won’t be able to thrive. These areas are unsuitable for them for one reason or the other. In places like that, you will be hard-pressed to find bobcat populations, except for isolated individuals.
Urban Areas
With people hunting bobcats to near extinction, most bobcats have adapted by living far away from humans. We say most because there are occasions when bobcats and humans do live close together, like on farms or rural towns close to the wilderness.
However, being so close to people can raise a lot of problems. For one, hunting will be a constant threat for bobcats as many states allow bobcat hunting. Not only that, but resources are much more limited since people tend to take up a lot of the land. These little furballs will have difficulty finding food unless they are willing to risk attacking housepets and livestock.
Tundras
There is a reason why bobcats are only found in the southern parts of Canada, and that reason is the temperature. In the northern provinces, the cold and snow are too much for bobcats, a cat better suited for warm climates.
Bobcats are not built to live in snowy environments and the tundra mitigates some of their natural advantages.
The biggest problem is their paws which aren’t built for the tundras and tend to sink into the snow. The snow makes movement difficult for bobcats and prevents them from moving properly.
What’s Important For The Bobcat’s Habitat?
Despite their adaptability, bobcats have certain requirements for their habitat to be able to thrive. Whether it’s a desert or the woods, bobcats need to have the basic means for survival, if they are to make that place their home.
Food
Bobcats are exclusively carnivores, meaning they eat nothing but meat. So if one of these felines wants to live in an area, there must be something for him to hunt. Bobcats eat rabbits, squirrels, birds, or other rodents, so they need some of these, or some other small animals in the area to survive.
If these aren’t available, there must be some substitute. For example, bobcats can eat lizards, snakes, and carrion in the desert since there are no squirrels and rabbits.
Security
Although predators, bobcats, are not very big and may find themselves prey to larger animals, which is why security is an integral part of their habitat.
For example, avoiding humans is one reason why bobcats prefer isolated areas. That is why they often prefer places where they can hide, such as forests or mountains, or where they can camouflage.
Shelter
Bobcats don’t just sleep in the open; they need dens to ensure safety from predators and the environment. The places where they thrive the most are areas with plenty of shelter. Fallen logs, rock outcroppings, or caves can make for excellent resting places.
These clever cats can even pick multiple places to live in areas with plenty of cover, opting for both the main den and additional auxiliary dens. The main den serves as their home where they sleep, while the auxiliary dens are temporary shelters.
Space
The average male bobcat can lay claim to about 25 square miles of space for their territory, and as solitary animals, they aren’t always keen on sharing that space with other bobcats. That means a thriving bobcat population will need much more room to survive to maintain its numbers.
Bobcats need to live in continuous, unfragmented areas because fragmented areas won’t offer enough space to inhabit for long. Swamps and forests offer plenty of resources for a bobcat to survive and a desert is large and mostly uninhabited by people, meaning these bobcats won’t have as much competition.
If the area is too small, it might not provide enough resources for bobcats to thrive and habitat fragmentation might also be a problem. This occurs when areas are cut off from the rest of the environment.
When that happens, the isolated population struggles to survive not just from the limited resources, but also from problems breeding. With only a few individuals in the area, there are fewer potential mates and the risks of inbreeding will increase from the shrunken gene pool.
Does Habitat Loss Threaten Bobcats?
Although bobcats are doing quite well for themselves now, there are still persistent issues with their survival, namely habitat loss. Being adaptable won’t mean anything if bobcats don’t have an environment to live in.
Habitat loss has been a problem for centuries and was one of the leading causes of the past population decline of bobcats.
Take Delaware, for example, the one state in the mainland US without any bobcats; the reason for that was the European settlers who destroyed their habitat to establish their colony. Swamps were drained, and forests cut down, leaving the bobcats nowhere else to go.
Today this continues to remain an issue and it exists in many parts of the country. Activities such as logging and land development end up destroying areas that bobcats might live in.
Even with new protective measures, many problems still exist, such as habitat fragmentation, a phenomenon where large habitats get broken apart into smaller areas.
Our feline friends here are especially vulnerable because a population requires a lot of space to fit them all. That means these groups become less healthy as they have fewer resources and viable mates.
Author: Quade Ong
Hello there, my name is Quade. I have been a writer for three years but an animal lover for over two decades. I grew up in one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, which has given me the blessing of seeing all sorts of beautiful animals. Now I strive to learn not just about the animals I am from, but those all over the world!
