Bobcats...should I shoot them?
 

We hunt on a small 115 acre piece of land most of the time. Lots of farm land surrounding it. It has a good number of coyotes in the area, and we shoot as many as we can to help out the deer and the surrounding new calf population.
I've been getting the occasional bobcat on my trail cam pictures. I've always heard that they can kill a small deer. With this being a small piece of land and small numbers of deer that move through the area, I'm wondering if you folks think they pose a real threat to the new fawn population each year.
I just got a picture of a new fawn, still with its spots oddly enough, 3 days ago. I also got 2 pictures of a bobcat following the same trail the fawn was on. I want to protect the growing deer population in the area, but I don't want to blast a family of bobcats if ya'll dont think I need to. I know they're considered "varmints" like coyotes, but I guess I think of them more as a rare to see, beautifull animal.

What do you folks think?

I would defiantly.... Shoot em!

Shoot them.

A Bobcat is like a house cat, it will kill anything that it can kill.
A Bobcat breeds like a house cat and has many litters per a year.
Because it has many kittens to take car of, it will kill any game it can catch to feed it's family.
I have seen Bobcats and I am not sure if it could kill a fawn or not.
But when they showed up at our camp, the grouse population declined to the point of where I have not seen a grouse up around our camp now in over 20 years.
The game commission did not admit that they had released Bobcats until many years after they had done so. So when they did not admit that they had released breeding pairs of Bobcats, there was no season.
Once people started coming forth - admitting that they had Bobcats on their properties - that game commission came forth and admitted that they had released Bobcats all across Pennsylvania and then they started a trapping season and they have a permit that you have to apply for and a limit as to how many you can trap.
My guess is that your state did the same thing.

I don't know of one reason why a Bobcat would be beneficial to the animal kingdom except as another animal to trap and another permit to sell. When your grouse, pheasants, quail, Bob White, squirrels disappear - you will be sorry that they ever reintroduced them to your area.

I'd check with your game laws 1st. There may be a certain season that you can do it.

Shoot em. They'll tear a deer herd up also heck on turkeys

I agree with everyone else,,check local game laws,,then shoot them, and they make a really good looking mount.

Good luck hunting this year everyone and be safe :)

Ya know, I've seen several posts of yours "mr deer hunter" and have yet to see one that is accurate. I could spend an entire page just teaching you about the things you got wrong in that one paragraph

these folks are crazy. don't shoot them just to do it for...for "deer management purposes"...its not reasonable

what I mean is that having a bobcat or three on the property is not going to significantly impact a deer heard. If you were overrun with cats (which is probably impossible) then maybe there'd be a cause for a control policy. Bobcats are solitary stealth hunters that could eat on a single deer for a great long while. They are opportunistic (duh) as is every predator. They have established individual territories, which means they aren't going to "take over", and although the territories may overlap a little, 1000+ acres per cat is normal...so the chances of that cat even being on your land at a given time are extremely slim. They have one litter per year, usually only a couple of kittens, and they are not all likely to survive. although I'd bet a single cat could kill a decent size deer if given the right circumstance, the mostly hunt rodents and birds.

that being said they are beautiful game animals and a wonderful
trophy. their scream can make your blood curdle...which is pretty cool in itself. I doubt many hunters have even seen one (even in areas where they are prevalent), so hunt them if you want (and legally can)....but don't think of them as moles in your yard.

All this is probably is probably academic as you'll probably never get a crack at one anyway...but anyway. good luck with your property

WE had a camp with 106 acres and the Bobcats would come to the edge of the camp yard and watch us cut the grass. It was probably 3 years before i realized that it was a Bobcat and not just a regular old house cat.

The camp was 7/10ths of a mile back up into the woods and the nearest house was another 1/2 a mile away.

The Bobcat doesn't have to attack deer to be a predator that you don't want around. Like others has said, it will go after anything that it can catch. They love young Turkey Poults.

Mr. Deer Hunter, its is only logical that a Bobcat would love turkey poults. They are small, defenseless, and tasty. The logic that its alright to kill one for that reason is ludicrous at best.
Bobcats have been killing turkeys since before Man was a significant threat to wildlife on a large scale, in other words, for millions of years.
To kill a bobcat as a form of "wildlife management" is not only illegal in some states,being that they are a regulated game animal in most states.
It lends itself to a lack of responsibility as well. Also, it adds credence to the arguments of anti-hunters that we just want to hunt so we can kill something\anything.

I'm not worrie so much for my deer as I am my rabbits. Ain't hardly enough to hunt as it is and a bobcat killin em makes me mad in my book a bobcat and coyote are on the same page I'd assume shoot one as a deer. That's just me but many feel the same as I do