Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Abstract

Bobcat (Lynx rufus) populations in the Midwest have experienced declines since the mid-1900s. Consequently, species such as the domestic cat (Felis catus) may start to fill the niche of this predator, especially in more anthropogenically-altered habitats. We compared the habitat associations of bobcats and domestic cats across land cover types in southeast Kansas. We hypothesized that interspecific competition occurs between the two species, resulting in bobcats being detected more often in forests and domestic cats in urbanized habitats. We used data collected from 398 camera traps across 12 counties in southeast Kansas to test our hypotheses. We ran independence tests and generalized linear models to examine the influence of domestic cat occurrence on bobcat occurrence. We also performed non-metric multidimensional scaling analyses for both species to examine their landscape habitat associations and determine their degree of habitat overlap. We detected 350 unique bobcat detections across 168 unique sites and 200 unique domestic cat detections across 61 unique sites. We rejected both hypotheses, as bobcats were equally detected at locations with and without domestic cats and both species were found across habitat types in Kansas. Future research should explore other features regarding the distribution of bobcats across the landscape, such as prey availability and land cover diversity, to provide insight into their population declines in the Midwest.

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