Where Do Bobcats Live? Bobcat Range and Habitat

Bobcat range in North America

The bobcat has one of the largest ranges of any North American wild cat. In Canada it lives in a belt along the southern border, roughly from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. In the United States it occurs from coast to coast, and in Mexico it reaches south to Oaxaca, where the tropical lowlands begin.

There are no wild bobcats in Alaska, the far north of Canada, Hawaii, or anywhere outside North America. Europe’s lynxes are separate species, the Eurasian lynx and the Iberian lynx.

Bobcat habitats: from swamps to deserts

Few wild cats use as many habitats as the bobcat. It lives in:

• Forests: deciduous, coniferous and mixed woodland, especially with thickets and clearings.
• Swamps and wetlands: for example the cypress swamps and Everglades of Florida.
• Deserts and scrub: the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, Texas brush country and chaparral in California.
• Mountains and canyons: rocky slopes, ledges and canyons up into mountain forests.
• Farmland and suburbs: field edges, woodlots, greenbelts and the “urban edge” where towns meet wild land.

What these places share is cover for stalking and resting, safe den sites, shelter from bad weather and plenty of small prey. Large areas of open, intensively farmed land without cover are the main habitat that bobcats avoid.

Dens and resting places

Bobcats do not dig their own burrows. Instead, they use natural shelters: rock crevices and ledges, small caves, hollow logs and trees, brush piles, dense thickets, and sometimes spaces under buildings or sheds. A bobcat usually has one main den and several auxiliary shelters scattered around its range.

Females choose especially well-hidden dens to give birth, usually in April or May. Kittens stay there for their first weeks, and the mother may move them to a new den if she is disturbed.

How big is a bobcat’s territory?

Each bobcat lives in a home range that it marks with urine, feces and scratches on trees. Ranges vary enormously, from under 1 km² (0.4 sq mi) to more than 300 km² (115 sq mi), mainly because prey density differs so much between habitats. In one Kansas study, resident males used about 21 km² (8 sq mi), females less than half that, and young transient animals wandered over about 57 km² (22 sq mi).

Males usually have larger ranges that overlap the ranges of several females. Females are less tolerant of each other and rarely share space. A bobcat travels roughly 3–11 km (2–7 mi) a night along regular routes.

Population densities vary just as widely. A commonly quoted average is about one bobcat per 13 km² (5 sq mi), but local numbers can be far higher where rabbits are abundant.

Why bobcats are rare in the far north

Deep, soft snow is the bobcat’s main limit in the north. Its paws are small compared with those of the Canada lynx, which has huge, furry “snowshoe” feet that carry its weight on snow. Bobcats wait out heavy snowstorms in shelter and struggle to hunt in deep snow.

Where the two cats meet, in southern Canada and the northern United States, they compete for prey. Bobcats tend to dominate in lower, less snowy areas, and lynxes in deep-snow boreal forest. For the details, see bobcat vs lynx.

Population recovery

During the 20th century, bobcats disappeared from parts of the Midwest and Northeast, mainly because of habitat changes from intensive farming, along with hunting and trapping. Since then they have returned to many areas, including large parts of Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Illinois, and they now occur in nearly every state of the lower 48.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated 700,000 to 1.5 million bobcats in the United States in 1988, and later surveys suggested that numbers have increased since then. The species is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, with a stable population.

Bobcats near people

Bobcats can live surprisingly close to towns if green corridors connect patches of habitat. Studies in Southern California found that roads and development do not always reduce bobcat numbers, but they isolate populations and reduce genetic exchange between them. Wildlife underpasses and protected open space help bobcats move safely.

A bobcat in a suburban yard is usually just passing through its range. These cats are shy and pose very little risk to people.