Ive seen a bunch north of 70

Maybe along one of the rivers, but not out here in the flats...

I guess that depends on what you mean by along the rivers. Pike and Scott are the counties Ive seen a bunch. Especially pike. Both counties do border rivers. The spot in Scott is probably 2 miles off the Illinois river and the spot in Pike which is just lousy with them is probably 15 miles from the Illinois river and the Mississippi river.

Definitely - I would include any of the counties that border the Illinois or Mississippi rivers. I have a buddy who farms over in Greene county, and I've seen a bunch over there. I'm on the eastern side of the state. I think its too flat and wide open for any of the bigger cats to feel comfortable around here. We do have some timber, but its in smaller patches here and there.

It might have something to do with the releasing procedure. I hunt a farm in Adams more than anywhere else and have yet to see one there.

What releasing procedure? They haven't trapped and relocated any Bobcat in Illinois. At least the IDNR hasn't anyway. The last study (before this latest one) was ended in 1999 with a grand total of 2250 estimated cats in 101 counties in Illinois. It's now estimated at 5000 (same county count) 16 years and the population only doubling isn't that great of a rise at all really. Especially with a protected animal that generally should have around a 20-25% rise in population per year being protected. They aren't like rabbit's but their reproductive cycle is such that it should have had a much better bounce back than that. It certainly shows no evidence of re-population through releasing/relocating procedures by Human means. They really just don't have a heck of a lot of preferred habitat. We have a good bit of younger tree growth and good underbrush on our properties (preferred habitat) which is why I see a good number of them. But overall in Illinois there has just been WAY too much clearing and urban sprawl for a happy Bobcat habitat statewide.

I'd be shocked if they didn't release bobcats. We went from lucky to see one in 20 years to lucky if you don't have to get one out of your yote trap every other morning basically over night and they blew up all over the county and some surrounding counties all at once. There was no slow come back. They went from very rare to very abundant in a hury

Well then prepare to be shocked. :jaw: With Blago's rape and pillage of the IDNR's funds during his reign of terror the IDNR most certainly didn't have the funds for a relocation program for Bobcats. Quinn didn't help matters much either. But nope there was no relocation/repopulation of the Bobcat in Illinois. They did it all by themselves (well with the help of being on the protected species list) the old fashioned way. You are probably seeing the results of good cover and habitat growth spurring on reproduction. More kitts surviving. I would assume where you are seeing them has a pretty close habitat to the way ours is. Good young tree growth, lots of underbrush, plenty of mice, rabbits, and squirrels to munch on.

I'm not shocked because I don't believe that they all the sudden made a huge comeback all at once across several counties.

The habitat has been the same all along.

There are people with boat loads of money that would love to see predators released in certain parts of IL.

We went from never seeing a single bobcat on the pike and Scott county farms I hunt and the surrounding 1000 acres that buddies hunt EVER to all the sudden all of us seeing full grown adult bobcats running around everywhere(2012 I believe) followed by litters of bobcats the following years.

If someone private did it, there was certainly nothing published as far as a study or any approved release by the IDNR. That would be a matter of public record and would require approval from the commission. In other words, if someone did it privately, they did it by illegal means without any approval from the "powers that be". I love yote hunting and grew up Bobcat hunting so I follow all that kind of stuff very closely. And BTW, yep cats can and do relocate. They aren't typically "roamers" per say but when the food gets scarce they can and will move good distances and often times there will be quite a few cats moving at once.