Bobcat's In Illinois - Revised
08-06-2014, 02:32 PM
#15
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,462
I think its only a matter of time before they move north into central Illinois. I'm still not sure if I want them. They are a pretty neat animal to see in the wild but I hear they are great at finding newborn fawns as well.
11-30-2014, 05:01 PM
#19
Spike
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Kendall County IL
Posts: 6
Take this for what it's worth, but last deer season I was sitting in a tree stand in McDonough County IL and I saw something moving at 300 yards that was too big to be a feral cat and too small to be anything else, definitely feline. It was on an alfalfa field for about 5 minutes before it went back into the timber. I say take it for what it's worth because at the time I was looking head on into a freezing rain and a 20mph wind so I couldn't make a positive ID.
With that said there was a bear roaming Northern IL counties earlier this year, a tail cam pic of a Cougar in Yorkville, IL last year, and feral hogs in Fulton County, so I have no doubt there are bobcats roaming throughout the state............and per prior posts they are all specifically protected by the hunting regs (X feral swine during open gun seasons)
With that said there was a bear roaming Northern IL counties earlier this year, a tail cam pic of a Cougar in Yorkville, IL last year, and feral hogs in Fulton County, so I have no doubt there are bobcats roaming throughout the state............and per prior posts they are all specifically protected by the hunting regs (X feral swine during open gun seasons)
11-30-2014, 05:39 PM
#20
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Allegan, MI
Posts: 8,019
Bobcats and cougars are very secretive animals. I've had good hunting property up in northern Michigan since 1973 where there are bobcats and I've never seen one. The closest I've been to even knowing one was around was when I found a doe that had been shot and lost by an archer and it died on my place. A cat had found it, eaten some, and then partially cover it with field debris. I have no doubt that there are bobcats in some areas of IL and probably the further south you go out of the more open agricultural areas the better chance there would probably be of them inhabiting the area.