Bobcat's In Illinois - Revised
 

I just found out that Illinois is opening a season for bobcats. I have never even seen one. Has anyone else seen any and what counties.
The season should be open this year.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Well! Has anyone ever seen one.

I have never seen one around here. I've seen trail camera pictures from the southern part of the state of bobcats coming in to watering holes. I lived in northern Wisconsin for about 20 years, and I know they were around up there, but I only ever saw one. They are pretty reclusive.

they are all over down hear in massac, pope county we see them all the time

Closest place I've seen them is Southeast Iowa. I've hunted public in most all parts of Illinois and not seen one yet.

Its funny, I hunt in Central Illinois in some hills and ridges and never seen one or even had one on camera. When I hunt Saline and Williamson County I see them everywhere. I had two cameras up for three days and had 6 different ones on them plus I saw two from my stand. If I get to hunt down there again and the season is open during the deer season I will pick up a tag. I think that would make a really neat mount.

I hunt Randolph county and have seen them there.

I've seen them in Williamson several times myself.

I got close to 50 game cam pics of them this year. I hunt Clay, Wayne, Marion, Jefferson. Been seeing them for about 8 years!

I have heard a couple years ago, untill this last deer season never seen one. Last November seen one in the woods during an archery hunt then got one on the trail cam a while after that. It was in Hancock county. From what I gathered the season starts in November, what have you guys heard?

My understanding is the bill made it out of the Illinois house, but never made it out of committee in the Senate. The current session is now over, so this fall would be the earliest it could be considered again. Good old Illinois politics.

Have seen Bobcats from my deer stand in Jackson and Union counties.

My farm is in schuyler county and I have never seen one.I talked to our farmer the other day and he said that they are around and he is seeing them all the time ??

When kind of ammunition can you hunt them with? I imagine any shotgun ammo will ruin the pelt

i knew someone that hit one, in Crawford county

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.

whiteside county..3 cameras.. 3 different farms..past 5 yrs. never seen one..no pics..no tracks..:confused0024:

Bobcat are not legal to hunt or trap in Illinois according to most recent DNR hunter info.

Wolf, mountain lion and bear are also protected this year.

I have seen one in edwards county

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)

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.

Saw two kittens chasing a rabbit, then a few days later a huge mama (I assume) pouncing for voles same spot in Pike County.

They got this bobcat legislation update on NBC TV Chicago morning news right now.

The Bobcat bill is sitting on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature. It calls for a season running from the beginning of November til the middle of February (not sure of the exact dates) and a limit of 1 Bobcat per hunter per season. Illinois law says if the bill is not signed within 60 days it automatically becomes law. My guess is that is exactly what is going to happen as Quinn has not said if he intends to sign it or not, but the bill passed by a wide enough margin to override a veto.

Quick update. The idiot Quinn vetoed the Bobcat bill literally as he was walking out the door. Work has already started on reintroducing it in the current legislative session and there should be no problem getting it passed again and signed by the new Governor. There are no sure things in Illinois politics, but hopefully they can get it done this time.

Saw a large female in Pike county in 2013.. There are quite a few in that area. Putting a hurting on those turkeys......

I know several Hunters in Illinios in Randolph County that were hoping they passed the Bill so they could hunt Bobcats....each of those Hunters have seen several Bobcats while Turkey and Deer Hunting over the years.

Bobcats are very quiet and elusive,there are several places I hunt that have a healthy population of Bobcats.They move mostly at night and will come in to several different distress sounds and decoys,I use a feather on a string hanging from a tree limb or stick to catch their attention.A trail camera is the best thing to use for catching them moving at night or in the early mornings and late evenings,Bobcats will move during the day time also just not as much as the other times I previously mentioned.

Quick update. While the Bobcat season bill is still alive and kicking, it has been amended to require a permit to hunt Bobcats. Not sure, but I believe the state of Illinois already has it's hand in my pocket far enough. As written the amendment does not allow the permit fee to exceed $5, so I guess that isn't too bad. It does allow the state to control the Bobcat season on a county by county basis just like it does the Whitetail season. Hope they don't get it as screwed up as they have our Whitetail herd.

Just read somewhere that Gov. Rauner signed the bobcat bill. It looks like permits will be $5, with a statewide limit of 300 cats total, and the season will run Nov. through Feb. If this is true, it'll be tough to get a bobcat tag. I'm betting there's a lot of people waiting for a chance to get one.

Well they only estimate the statewide numbers to be around 5000 so you will have fun getting a permit. They must have been on our properties to get that count because I know we have quite a few around here.

I'm not wasting any time trying to get a tag. I've never seen one here. I'd bet 99% of them are south of interstate 70. Even if I did see one, I doubt I'd even try to hunt it. I have plenty of coyotes to keep me busy in the off season.

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.