Ohio has 2 native species of wild cats. However, the bobcat (Lynx rufus) is Ohio’s only extant wild cat species. Mountain lions are also native to Ohio, but they were extirpated from the state by the mid 1800s.
Bobcats in Ohio (lynx rufus)
The Bobcat, which is also known as the red lynx, is a North American wild cat. The Canada lynx is a cousin of the bobcat. Biologists believe that both the bobcat and the Canada lynx are descendants of the Eurasian lynx whose ancestors crossed into North America via the Bearing Sea land bridge.
Bobcats reside only in North America. Their range begins in southern Canada. Then it extends south through the United States and down into central Mexico. They are the most common wildcat in North America.
According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources bobcat page, prior to settlement by European Americans, Ohio’s bobcats were common throughout the state. However, they were extirpated from the state in 1850. Habitat loss, due to human beings converting land over to agricultural use, and overhunting were the chief causes of their extirpation.
After the bobcat’s extirpation, they began to repopulate Ohio in the Mid-1900s. Since then, this cat has been sighted more often every year.
The bobcat population has increased sufficiently that they were removed from the Ohio endangered species list in 2014. However, the current bobcat population in Ohio is still being determined. The Ohio Division of Wildlife is currently working with researchers to estimate the state’s bobcat population using genetic sampling.
Per an Ohio University study, Ohio’s bobcat population is rising with more potential habitat to facilitate future growth. See Their population is the densest in areas with the densest forest growth, such as southeastern Ohio.
It is a given that the forested areas of southeastern Ohio are the most suitable area for bobcats. However, the researchers concluded that southwestern and northeastern Ohio also have habitat that can support bobcats. These areas have pastures and other natural habitats that bobcats can utilize for hunting small mammals.
Speaking of northeastern Ohio, a bobcat was sighted twice in the summer of 2022 in the Cleveland parks system. This is the first time a bobcat has been sighted in Cuyahoga County since 1850.
The study also found that central Ohio, which is dominated by heavy agriculture, lacks natural habitats that bobcats need. See
According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife, at this time, there is no open season for bobcat hunting or trapping in Ohio. See
Bobcats live in a variety of terrain. Look for them in broken habitat types that might include riparian woodland, dense forests, ravines, rocky ledges and/or outcroppings, and field borders.
The mottled pattern of their fur gives them excellent camouflage to live undetected in these environments.
Bobcats do not hibernate. They are active throughout the year. However, they’re rarely seen since they’re predominantly nocturnal or crepuscular animals. See
A bobcat is a solitary animal with the exceptions of during mating season or when a female is raising young. They are territorial and live in home ranges that they patrol and scent mark with urine and feces.
Their territory size varies with the geography and the availability of prey. However, in Ohio, a bobcat’s average range is from 6 to 12 miles. Male home ranges are generally quite a bit larger than female home ranges.
It’s also important to note that male and female bobcat home ranges sometimes overlap.
What do Bobcats Look Like?
A bobcat is much smaller than a mountain lion and slightly smaller than a Canada lynx. An average bobcat is about twice the size of a domestic cat.
Adult bobcats are 2 to 3 feet long and weigh 15 to 35 pounds. Adult male bobcats are quite a bit larger than females.
These animals have a “bobbed,” short tail with black bands on its upper surface. Their tail also has a black tip on its upper surface but not the back. Their fur is usually gray to brown, with mottled dark spots that range from black to dark brown on the upper parts of the body. They also have black stripes on their inner forelegs and tail.
From a side view, you will notice that a bobcat is slightly higher at the rump than at the shoulders. Bobcats and lynx have long hind legs in proportion to their forelegs.
Bobcats have black-tufted ears. In other words, they have black tufts of hair that poke up top of the tip of the ears. They do have shorter ear tufts than their close relative, the Canada lynx.
The backs of their ears, below the black tips, are black. In the center of the black of each ear, they have white spots. This gives the impression of a false eye on the back of each ear.
They also have a whiskered face that seems broader due to their long ruffled facial hair and whiskers. Their eyes are yellow with round black pupils.
Bobcats Aren’t Adapted for Deep Snow.
Compared to Canada lynx, which thrive in deep snow country, bobcats struggle more in the snow due to the fact that they cannot walk on top of it like lynx can. A lynx’s large paws function like snowshoes keeping it on the snow’s surface. On the other hand, compared to lynx, bobcats have small feet that tend to sink into the snow. If the snow is too deep and powdery, it reduces their mobility along with their ability to catch prey.
This is why the bobcat range dies out in the northern latitudes. From there on north, Canada lynx are more prevalent and bobcats less so.
Bobcats are also unable to live at higher elevations as lynx do in the winter. In the winter, lynx are able to stay in the high country to hunt their preferred prey, snowshoe hares.
What Do Bobcats Eat?
Despite their comparatively small size, bobcats are aggressive, tough, fierce hunters. At times, particularly during the winter, they prey on large mammals that are much larger than they are, such as white-tailed deer. However, deer are not their go-to prey. They feed on a variety of wildlife, but 95 percent of their diet consists of small prey animals such as rabbits, mice, voles, and squirrels. They are opportunistic feeders and might also feed on such animals as beavers, muskrats, porcupines, birds, reptiles, insects, and carrion. When they take up residence close to a residential area, their menu might occasionally also include small domestic animals and house pets.
Interestingly, they even prey on venomous snakes even though they are not immune to the venom. They accomplish this by using their quickness to pin the snake’s head down with a paw, after which they dispatch the snake with a quick bite to its spine behind the head.
The Venomous snakes in Ohio are: See
- Eastern Copperhead
- Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake
- Timber Rattlesnake
What Eats Bobcats?
In Iowa, coyotes, domestic dogs, great horned owls, and foxes may occasionally kill young bobcats. Other than that, these felines have no real predators.
Reproduction and Life Cycle for Bobcats
In Ohio, bobcats may breed at any time throughout the year. However, they mainly breed from December through May. During the breeding season, a male bobcat may mate with multiple females. If they successfully mate, their gestation periods will last for 60 to 63 days.
After breeding, the male and female go their separate ways. The female takes all responsibility for the selection of a den site and the rearing of the young. Females generally give birth between late April and early May. See
Look for maternal dens in a wooded area. Bobcats use features such as a rock outcropping, hollow trees or hollow logs, openings in the ground, the root masses of overturned stumps, or the space beneath a fallen tree as denning sites.
A bobcat litter consists of anywhere from 1 to 5 kittens. The average litter size, though, is around 3. Bobcat kittens have their eyes when they’re born, just like domestic cats are. However, their eyes will open when they are a week to 10 days old. By the time they are 2 months old, they will have replaced their spotted baby fur with a haircoat similar to what their parents have.
By mid-July, the young kittens begin to venture out with the mother bobcats to fine-tune their survival skills. Their training may last into the early winter. By mid-winter, the kittens strike out on their own.
Female bobcats reach sexual maturity at 1 year of age, while males reach sexual maturity at age 2.
Mountain lions in Ohio (Puma concolor)
Due to the fact that they live over a wide geographical area, mountain lions have a long list of regional names. In recent years, their scientific name was even changed from Felis concolor to Puma concolor. Some common names that mountain lions go by are cougar, panther painter, Andean Mountain lion, and puma.
Where are mountain lions typically found?
Mountain lions live on all three of the American continents. Their range begins in Canada’s Yukon territory and extends south through parts of North America, Central America, and South America to the southern tip of Argentina.
In Canada, the biggest populations of them are in British Columbia and Alberta. On the other hand, in the United States, they mainly live in the western united states and Florida in the southeast. In Florida, the cougar is called the Florida panther.
Although mountain lions are also native to most of the eastern and midwestern United States, they have been extirpated from most of this territory.
Mountain lions are native to Ohio. However, they are extirpated from the state and have been since the early to mid 1800s.
People occasionally see mountain lions in Ohio. However, most of these sightings prove to be loose captive mountain lions.
Also, occasionally young male mountain lions from established populations travel large distances looking to establish their own territory. An example of this happened in 2011 when a young male cougar traveled over 1,500 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota to be struck by a car and killed in Connecticut. See
Whatever the source of Ohio mountain lion sightings, the Ohio DNR does not see any sign of a breeding mountain lion population in the state at this time.
What do mountain lions look like?
To visualize what a mountain lion looks like, picture a giant house cat with short, light brown fur. Mountain lions are much larger than domestic cats, though. Average house cats weigh in at around 10 pounds, while male mountain lions can weigh over 200 pounds.
These large cats have muscular slender bodies, rounded small heads, and upright ears that are oval at the tip. Another characteristic that mountain lions have is their muscular long tails, which account for almost one-third of the entire length of the animal. They use their long tail for a counterbalance, moving it from side to side as they navigate through uneven terrain.
Mountain lions have a tan coat of short, coarse hair over most of their body. The area around their nose, the tip of their tail, and the tips of their ears are black. Their belly, the area above their upper lip, below their lower lip, and their chin are all white. They also have a sprinkling of dark hair on their backs. There are some coat color variances between different geographic locations.
Mountain lions are the second largest cats in the western hemisphere, smaller only than the Jaguar (Panthera onca). However, worldwide, the African Lion, (Panthera leo) and the Tiger (Panthera tigris) are also larger.
Male and female mountain lions are phenotypically identical in every respect except for size. Males are 30 to 40% bigger than females. Though sizes vary considerably throughout the cat’s geographic range, an adult male typically weighs between 110 and 180 pounds, 50 to (82 kgs). A rare few of them grow bigger than 200 pounds (91kgs). Female mountain lions or queens average between 80 and 130 pounds (36 to 59 kgs). Adult males or toms will reach a length of 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 M) from their snout to the tip of their tail. On the other hand, adult females are 5 to 7 feet long (1.5 to 2.1 M).
Large cats but not big cats
An interesting fact is that while an adult mountain lion might be a large cat or maybe even a big cat, they are not taxonomically classified as big cats because they cannot roar. Snow leopards, for example, are smaller than mountain lions, but since they can roar and cannot purr, they are classified as big cats, while mountain lions are not. Another interesting thing that I can mention here is that mountain lions purr.
Since they purr and cannot roar, mountain lions are in the Felis genus, while big cats that cannot purr and can roar are in the Panthera genus.
Biologists taxonomically divided mountain lions into 2 sub-species in 2017. The first is (Puma concolor couguar) or northern cougar. Northern cougars range through North America, Central America, and possibly northwestern South America. The second sub-species is (Puma concolor concolor) or southern cougar. These cats range only in South America.
What do mountain lions eat?
Mountain lions account for around 18 pounds of biomass and consume around 10 pounds of meat per day. To do this, an adult mountain lion has to kill a deer or a deer’s equivalent in meat around once a week. Mountain lion populations in the western United States go up and down with deer populations. A mountain lion’s preferred prey is deer. However, they also prey on other animals.
In Ohio, mountain lions would prey on white-tailed deer, livestock coyotes, and smaller animals such as raccoons, rabbits, wild turkeys, miscellaneous birds, various small rodents, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, porcupines, skunks, snakes, pets, feral cats, and any other native wildlife they can catch.
Mountain lion behavior
Mountain lions are solitary, territorial animals. It’s a Rarity to see 2 or more together unless during mating or in the case of a female raising young. They have expansive home ranges.
They have expansive home ranges. In fact, an adult male cougar’s home range is normally more than 100 square miles and up to 250 square miles. They will sometimes mark their territory by leaving claw marks on trees. They also scratch up piles of leaves and or pine needles that they urinate on as a scent marker. Male mountain lions fight to the death sometimes to defend their territory.
