Originally Posted by
rockport
or the "powers that be" were in on it and didn't want to disturb the huge deer hunting industry.
Where would they have moved from?
I'm not a biologist by any means, but I was under the impression that bobcats were pretty territorial. Once the population gets to a certain point, they start to wander, in search of unclaimed territory to occupy. If you think about it, they usually have 2 or 3 kittens every year, and how long has it been since it was legal to hunt them in illinois? It makes sense that they'd move up from the south and start occupying hill country along the rivers, because it resembles the hills in southern illinois they came from.