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

Heh. Mr. Deer Hunter is quite entertaining :)

Not really.

In Texas bobcats are considered a varmint and as long as you aren't sellling the pelt you can shoot them anytime. LOTS of bobcats in Texas. Their mating season is in February.

Not sure why bobcats have such a mystique about them, they are pretty comparable to a coyote in predation, maybe even a little more capable.

P.S. - For some reason I like bobcats over a coyote as well. I won't shoot a bobcat with my hunting rifle or during the summer or early fall because if I take one I want to keep it's pelt.

Here's my Christmas present from Santa last year.


He sits with me in my office now.


I've shot or trapped almost a dozen coyotes and never had the desire for one of them to sit in my office with me! ;)

yes exactly this was going on before man was a threat to wildlife on a large scale. BUT NOW we hunt deer and turkey as well!!! so since we hunt them along with bobcats that throws everything off so we hunt the bobcats to to put the population back in balance. so i say kill them if its legal! theres nothing wrong with getting rid of a few bobcats to better your deer or turkey population. people do it with coyotes to because the population of them in some areas is soaring and can affect the deer and turkey population as well as other small game animals. most people kill both of these as a form of "wildlife management". dont know where you get the ludacris part from cause i see nothing wrong with either of those if done legally.JMO

Bobcats impacting the deer herd?! Now thats funny! Some peoples kids wow............

So....... Are ya gonna shoot em?

Mr. Not Such a Good Deer Hunter,

If you would spend just 5 minutes on Google researching what you plan to post, you would come across as partially intelligent. As another poster said, bobcats have 1 litter per year...they weigh on avg. 15-20 lbs, hardly a threat to deer population.

I'm with the OP, I think they are majestic, I leave them alone.

So, you have tame bobcats at your camp? I figure this bobcat knew what we know about you, and that is, a sparrow has more knowledge about the animal kingdom than you do.

I had a chance to take a bobcat with my bow last year but at the last minute, I couldn't pull the trigger, so to speak. I had plenty of reason to; the stupid thing was chasing squirrels around my stand and scared off a bunch of deer in the process. After it chased all of the squirrels up into the trees, it happened to look up and saw me. It stood there for a while shaking it's little bobtail looking at me and I stood there (in my stand) at full draw but I decided not to take it's life.

The bobcat had every right to be there and I felt who was I to take his (or hers) life just because I was irritated at him. He was just trying to survive like every other animal in the woods and I feel, if I'm not going to consume the animal or it's not threatening me or my family then I have no right to kill it. Bobcats are still somewhat rare in Northeastern Missouri and I doubt they have much of an impact on the deer or turkey population so killing them in the name of wildlife management is BS.

Mr Deer Hunter, I doubt bobcats are killing off your grouse. I'd be more inclined to think a combination of a wet spring and summer, a crapload of bird-killing hawks (they're everywhere where I hunt), a decline in suitable habitat and feral cats (I kill those) are impacting you grouse population. I know that these factors have decimated the quail population in NE MO, so much so that during a typical quail hunt, I'd be lucky to see 1-2 covey's a day where we used to see 10-15.

People that think that bobcats aren't a source of fawn predation are kidding themselves. Since there quite a few less bobcats than coyotes, the number of fawns killed per bobcat is probably actually higher than the number of fawns killed by each coyote.


Whether they are impacting your deer herd may still be a question, but between higher coyote populations and ever growing bobcat populations, recruitment rates on whitetail deer are very low in some areas. Some studies are showing that 80% of the fawns born each year don't make it more than 3 months with the vast bulk of those being lost to predation. This may not be the case in every area, but it is the case in many.


Don't take my word for it, just do a google search and read some studies.

All I know is that I was on a hunt in Texas last year and the ranch owner told me I can shoot any coyote of bobcat I saw. And I was fortunate enough to take on with my bow and had it full mounted on a foam rock. Gorgeous mount.

You seem to not understand the concept of predator control. You're talking like a liberal democrat from chicago.

There is no reason to be insulting people on a open forum such as this.

Wow number one bobcats are territorial. So having a infestation is virtually impossible. I've hunted them for awhile in 3 states. They don't eat anymore then a coyote or a fox. In fact there numbers are far less then the fox and yotes.

Lets say you have a 1000 acres. You may have one or two that use that 1000 acres as their home range. Where as there might be 10 - 15 yotes and maybe 5 fox that call that 1000 acres home. The only reason you have so many pics is becuase the camera was probably placed on one of the cats outer territory lines. Which they patrol scent marking quit a bit. So killing a bobcat to just kill as a management tool is absolutely ridiculous and lacks knowledge on the subject.

Not saying shooting them is wrong I've shot many and think it's the top trophy in the predator hunting world.

Management tool no!:hit:

Check the regs., we have a bobcat season in KY.

If there is a season for legally hunting them in your area, then by all means, hunt them. If there isn't, there isn't a season for a reason...ask your state game managers to explain it to you. Shooting them out of season is no different than any other kind of poaching in my opinion, no matter what your justification may be. I see a lot of posts on here (rightfully) slamming people that poach deer, so at least be consistent and call all illegal taking of animals what it is: poaching.

Guys, the original poster lives in Texas. As previously mentioned Bobcats are considered a "nongame" species in Texas. There is no closed season on them, you can shoot them anytime you want.

The only requirements are if you want to sell the pelt or transport it out of state.