This page dedicated to the project “Using multiple data sources to develop management strategies for the recovering bobcat (Lynx rufus) population in Ohio” funded by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources ($245,000).

Given the proposed trapping season, our work has been featured in the news here, here, here, and here.

Project team:

• Dr. Viorel Popescu, PI
• Marissa Dyck, PhD student (graduated 2023)
• Heidi Bencin, MSc student (graduated 2018)
• Catherine Dennison, Furbearer Biologist, Ohio DNR
• Genelle Uhrig, The Wilds, Columbus Zoo
• Dr. Suzanne Prange, Appalachian Wildlife Research Institute
• Dr. Steve Spear, The Wilds, Columbus Zoo
• Christa Rose, Native Species Support LLC
• Field and lab crew: Julia Golias, Ryan Brown, Devon Cottrill, Connor Hall, Hannah Kopp, Ryan Wagner, Andrew Travers, Christine Hanson, Megan Sweeney, Maddy Back, Ashlynn Canode, Madeline Kenyon

Project objectives:

(1) Determine predictors of road mortality, and the overall risk of road mortality for the bobcat population in Ohio;

(2) Characterize the rate of expansion of the bobcat population in Ohio, evaluate current occupied range, and predict future areas for expansion,

(3) Identify source and sink areas in Ohio to inform management via trapping;

(4) Evaluate bobcat density in two core area in S and SE Ohio;

(5) Integrate existing and new information to predict population trajectories and acceptable trapping levels using a Spatial Population Viability Analysis framework.

Products:

• Dyck, M., G. Uhrig, S.F. Spear, R. Iosif and V.D. Popescu (accepted) First density estimates for a recovering bobcat population in Ohio using DNA from scat. Population Ecology
• Dyck, M., K.T. Shoemaker, C.A. Dennison, and V.D. Popescu (2023) Simulated effects of roadkill and harvest on the viability of a recovering bobcat population. The Journal of Wildlife Management e22460 link
• Dyck, M., E. Wyza, and V.D. Popescu (2022) When carnivores collide: a review of competitive interactions between bobcats (Lynx rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans). Mammal Review 52: 52-66 link
• Popescu, V.D., M. Kenyon, R. Brown, M. Dyck, S. Prange, W. Peterman and C. Dennison (2021) Habitat connectivity and resource selection in an expanding US Midwest bobcat population. PeerJ 9: e12460 link
• Bencin, H., C. Rose, S. Prange and V.D. Popescu (2019) Roadkill and space use data predict vehicle-strike hotspots and mortality rates in a recovering bobcat (Lynx rufus) population. Scientific Reports 9: 15391 link
• Rich, M., C. Thompson, S. Prange, and V.D. Popescu (2018) Relative importance of habitat characteristics and interspecific interactions in determining terrestrial carnivore occurrence. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6:78 link

Presentation to OH Division of Wildlife (Sep 2021) below

Progress:

• The project is officially over, but there are many ‘leftover’ datasets to analyze, including a scat environmental DNA dataset to estimate density; these data set the basis for a new grant with colleagues at Ohio University (Dr. Alvarado-Serrano) and Purdue University (Dr. DeWoody and Dr. Swihart) funded by the Indiana DNR ($350,000) to investigate diets of bobcats and cotytes using metagenomics… so, stay tuned!
• 2022: Bobcat PVA wrapped up with help from our colleague Kevin Shoemaker (Univ of Nevada, Reno)
• Dec 2021: DNA analyses of hair (2017 samples) and scat (2018-2019 samples): carnivore ID and bobcat samples genotyping
• Sep 2021: development of  habitat suitability and connectivity model for bobcats in Ohio
• April 2021 – PhD candidate Marissa Dyck co-authors a literature review of bobcats and coyote interactions in North America
• April 2020 – wrapped up 100+ necropsies of roadkill bobcats collected by Ohio DNR wildlife officers (demographic data collection and diet); age analysis was based on tooth cementum at Matson’s Lab
• January 2019 – Viorel Popescu presents on predictors of bobcat mortality in Ohio at the 2019 Ohio Wildlife Conference (invited talk)
• December 2018 – Heidi Bencin MSc thesis defense!!! Manuscripts: Road mortality in Ohio bobcats (submitted to Scientific Reports) and co-occurrence and multi-method occupancy modeling (in prep.)
• June 2018 to April 2019 – bobcat scat collection in 2 areas of OH: Zaleski and Vinton State Forests, and AEP ReCreation Lands
• July 2018 – Heidi Bencin presents her work on bobcats road morality predictors at the North American Congress for Conservation Biology, Toronto

• January – April 2018: road mortality risk analysis using road mortality data and GPS telemetry data (Heidi Bencin thesis)
• January – April 2018: spatial relations between verified sightings data and road mortality data (undergraduate student Ryan Brown)
• June 2017 – April 2018: evaluating habitat use by bobcats and other carnivores using camera trapping on public lands in SE Ohio (63 sites)
• June – November 2017: evaluating density of bobcats from hair DNA; 180 snares resulted in 600+ hair samples, currently being analyzed in collaboration with Dr. Steve Spear at The Wilds