This is an excerpt from a letter I had recently written to a benefactor regarding one of the wild bobcats I had the privilege of knowing through my research. It will also be included in a book I am currently writing. As you will read, Bobby was a special cat that touched my life in the ‘weird’ sort of way that animals often do when you’re up close and personal with them in their domain.

Bobby is one of many bobcats that I have been studying in Florida for the last few years. I capture and radio-collar bobcats in order to study landscape-scale population dynamics related to disturbances - habitat loss and alteration, fragmentation, isolation, etc. These disturbances are the result of an increasing human population and subsequent developments. With the use of the radio-collars, I can locate these bobcats to study habitat selection, movements, social interactions, nutrition and energetics, and many other life history functions.

My objective for conducting this study is to obtain information on this species in disturbed landscapes in order to prevent its extinction in the wake of a rapidly shrinking wilderness. Though bobcats are not listed as threatened or endangered in most states, they are wide-ranging. This means that a population requires thousands of acres of suitable land in order to experience long term persistence - biomedically, genetically, and demographically.

I estimate that this actual minimum area is about 291,000 acres. However, contiguous lands in this size range are becoming less frequent. As a result, bobcats, like other animals, are being forced to live in areas that are broken up and fragmented. Some populations in these kinds of areas are isolated with little or no movement by breeders in or out of the population. Small isolated populations are susceptible to epidemics, deleterious physiologic (sometimes fatal) effects due to increased inbreeding, etc. However, if some connectivity between disjunct populations can exist, then many of the above problems may not occur. The alleviation of these problems would be due to the facilitation of movement between groups, especially by dispersing juveniles like Bobby.

Thus, as part of this very large and multifaceted project that Coryi Foundation, Inc. is conducting, juvenile movements are considered a priority. We are seeking answers to questions such as: Will dispersing juveniles or nomadic adults use corridors? Can these corridors lace through narrow tracts of land defined by an abrupt natural-developed boundary? How narrow can it be? How does geometry of a heterogeneous landscape affect population viability? What is a minimum habitat area and can a population exist as several disjunct cores connected by corridors (metapopulation)? How do nutrition, genetics, and health factors fit into the picture in these landscapes? The list of questions is rather long. But suffice it to say that there is very little that will not be researched by the time this project is completed. The findings should help agencies to successfully manage viable populations in disturbed landscapes.

Thus, as a juvenile, Bobby was a very important asset for research. However, my interest in cats goes well beyond the academic. Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I have a love affair going on with cats. And those of you that are "cat people" know where I am coming from. To put it plainly - to bond with your own domestic tabby is an experience only known by those who understand it. But to have the opportunity to study a wild feline, especially a growing kitten up close and personal is totally euphoric.

Granted, most of my time with Bobby would be spent via my radio receiver listening to his transmitter pulse. However, there were many instances where my radio-tracking would lead me directly to his location and I would catch a glimpse of him in the wild. Many of these observations were not fleeting glimpses. Rather, they were long duration views as he was walking upon a trail or looking back at me from within a brushy thicket. Regardless, I did experience a totally rare opportunity. And I wish I could share all these experiences with you, but there are so many of them. Perhaps I will write a book one day. At least you should be able to read my published professional papers soon, of which a great deal should include information on Bobby. But I will give you some up front stuff right now.

Bobby was first captured and radio-collared just after dusk on September, 11, 1996 near the Mallory Swamp of the big bend region of north Florida. He was only 11 pounds at the time. Still a dependent kitten, his mom was nearby when he was captured.

At the time, we were using trained hound dogs to pick up bobcat scent. Just before dusk, we were following the dogs down a grassy road that wound through a very darkened pine forest. All of a sudden, the dogs shot off into the forest in several directions barking and howling. It quickly became apparent that there were multiple targets. This meant only one thing - there were multiple bobcats which were just on that section of the road and we probably had just stumbled upon their evening forage. We brought our vehicles to a stop to prepare for the capture. Rowdy and Mark (houndsman and veterinarian) walked down the road to monitor the howling while I stayed back at the vehicles. All of a sudden, I heard a scratching sound to my right. When I turned to look, I caught the view of an animal scrambling up a pine tree that was next to the road and just one hundred feet away from me. I quickly determined it to be a bobcat. But his size was small. I called Rowdy and Mark back to my position. We rallied at the tree and tied the dogs to its base to keep the cat from climbing down. Keeping him in the tree was not a problem. What was a problem was how to get him down once sedated. He had climbed to the very top - about 50 feet off the ground. If we fired the sedation dart into him, he might fall once sedated. So we came up with a plan that unfolded as follows: Rowdy climbed the tree to about the 30 foot level, with the dart rifle and rope in tow. He tied his end of the rope to the tree at that point. Mark and I tied the other end to Rowdy’s Toyota Forerunner. Rowdy then proceeded to dart the young cat from his position in the tree (try this while holding on for dear life). It took Rowdy 3 shots from his precarious stance before a dart finally made its mark. After he climbed down, we literally pulled the tree down by slowly pulling on the rope with the Toyota. Fortunately, pine trees are very flexible. We had this tree making a complete 90 degree bend. Such brought Bobby’s location to about 10 feet off the ground. By now, Bobby was fast asleep due to the effects of the tranquilizer dart. All we had left to do was crawl along the trunk of the now horizontal tree and unlatch his claws from its bark to retrieve him. Easy enough! Later that night we unleashed the tree. To this day there is a pine tree in the north Florida wild lands that looks like its only interested in the light it gathers at sunrise!

A kitten he definitely was - small, 11 pounds, still mamma’s boy, about 5 months old! This little guy was real cute and adorable, but every bit as wild and dangerous as an adult - very sharp claws and teeth and an attitude to boot. His small size made us realize that we would have to recapture him in several months in order to expand his radio-collar to accommodate his neck growth. So be it! In the dark, with flashlights, we attached the collar, took measurements, photos, video, blood, hair, and tick samples, etc. The chase started right before dusk, but now it was 10PM and he was awakening from sedation. I wondered where mom was. Would she and he find each other quickly. Of course - these guys are very capable. And mom is very protective and would not abandon him. So we carried him in an animal carrier away from the vehicles, found a break in the vegetation, and carefully opened the door. He came out of the carrier a little unsure of things, and slowly retreated into the forest. It was sight that could almost bring tears to your eyes. This little guy was, for the moment, alone, without mom, and disappearing into the darkness, sort of disoriented. I wondered how precarious and tentative such a life would be. But, as predicted, he survived the ordeal and was with mom a few hours later. Three days later we used his radio-signal to hone in on mom. Sure enough, it paid off and we captured and radio-collared her on Sept 14. As before, he went up a tree. She, on the other hand, led us on a mile long chase across a great swamp to its far side in a pine stand, where the dogs were able to keep her at bay in a thicket. Once collared, we left her in place, confident that she would return to the tree that Bobby was in. Sure enough, by 11 PM that night, Bobby and mom were back together. Why should we be surprised? These cats are very capable!

Thus began the up close and personal view into the intimate and mysterious lives of mother and kitten. For the next several months, I intensively tracked them. Most of the time, Bobby was with mom. However, gradually in time, it seemed as if the two were spending more time apart. By March 1997 (Bobby was then 11 months old), the two could no longer be observed together. Moreover, through most of March, Bobby stayed at the southern end of mom’s territory, right up against a creek. I became concerned that he was not doing well. However, my fears dissipated when I realized that I was observing the onset of dispersal. A few weeks before, his mom was with a nearby resident adult male, while Bobby was nearby. She must have been mating and subsequently, had evicted Bobby from her presence. Females do this so that the kittens from the previous year are not around for her new births. Older kittens are a burden, her attention must be on the newborns, and these older kittens might harm the newborns. Thus, Bobby was now forced to be "on his own". For the first time in his life he was going to have to find all his own food and defend his self. With this in mind, I got the impression that he was cowering at that southern end of his mom’s territory and too timid to go anywhere. One thing was for sure - he could not stay there for long. Food would run out and the resident adult male would eventually do his part to chase him off. Surely, this time in the life of a young bobcat must be particularly difficult.

Ironically, it was at this stage in his life that his injury took place. On the afternoon of April 8, 1997, he was being chased by a group of dogs and sought refuge in a tree. Felines in Florida really have no need for this evasive tactic anymore since there are no longer packs of red wolves in Florida. Wolves cooperatively hunt together. One on one, a bobcat can handle a wolf. But when there are two or more wolves, the cat must retreat to safety - trees are the only sure way. It’s funny how this behavior is still occurring in the present day in the absence of wolves. But there are wild dog packs in our modern time. Such would explain the felines’ persistent inclination to ‘tree’. Regardless, Bobby found his refuge at the top of a 50 foot maple tree in the middle of a mixed hardwood swamp. As it turned out, the dogs did no harm to him. But perhaps his state of health as a juvenile was a factor that contributed to his fall. Because he had remained in a small area at the southern end of his mom’s range for a few weeks, he might have depleted the available prey. This would lead to a loss in his body weight and strength. Perhaps he was a bit weakened and such prevented him from maintaining a secure stance in the tree. Regardless, he lost his grasp and fell to the swamp below. Fortunately, there were a few inches of standing water and soft sediment to cushion his fall. However, it was not enough to prevent a break to his right femur.

The fall rendered him unconscious. When I got to him, he was lying motionless in the water. I instinctively grabbed him and took him to the nearby dry forest road. He was several pounds underweight and looked like he had been struggling to acquire sufficient food. He was bleeding from his right thigh. After determining that his leg was broken, we rushed him to a nearby hospital. An x-ray revealed an oblique fracture just above the right knee. He underwent surgery to stabilize the break. Veterinarians installed a long metal pin through the marrow for the full length of the femur, two cross pins at the break, a metal plate with nine screws along the break, and three wire wraps around that whole assembly. He was in the hospital for eight days. The vet technicians gave him the name 'Bobby'. I rehabilitated him for several more weeks.

Figures: X-rays of Bobby's fractured femur. One marrow (long) pin, one plate and nine screws, 3 wire wraps, and 2 transverse pins are visible. Also visible is the oblique fracture just above the knee. Total cost of in-hospital care including surgery to install the hardware and convalescence (total ten days): $1018.00

Upon recovery, I released him back into his mom’s range on May 23 with a radio-collar attached so I could study his movement patterns and monitor his acclimation back into the wild. Most importantly, I wanted to make sure that he was going to survive after this ordeal. He basically picked up where he left off prior to the injury - as before, he hugged the southern portion of his mom’s range for several weeks. By now I was wondering how his absence would affect his dispersal. Would he revert to near starvation or what? My fears were abated in June when Bobby initiated a series of movements that took him out of mom’s range for the first time. He actually moved south of the creek and proceeded to travel away from his place of birth. From June to December, I watched him move incredible distances over a large area. I saw him several times. He had bulked up in size and weight. Apparently, he had become successful in finding food and was surviving quite well. It was as if his injury had no effect on him. He exhibited the typical bobcat dispersal behavior - moving long distances quickly (10-15 km in 48 hours), temporarily settling into a small area for 1-2 months, then moving on again - a nomadic pattern. By December, he had appeared to settle into an adult range. By then, he was 20 months old. Males are considered adults at or near 24 months of age - when they attain adult size and weight, become sexually mature, and establish residency in the population.

So far this story was a total success: Bobby recovered from his injury, had re-acclimated into the wild, and was exhibiting a normal dispersal behavior. I was happy that it all worked out for him. Yes, there were many times over the course of those 15 months where things seemed doubtful. But this little guy proved himself a winner. And I did become attached to him through all that had happened. The icing on the cake was that a lot of valuable research data had been obtained. But it all took a nose dive on Christmas day.

At around 9PM on Christmas night, I went out to track him. After tuning my receiver to his frequency, I was ‘floored’ when I heard that his collar transmitter pulse rate had doubled from one beat per second to two. This happens if the collar has been lying motionless for more than five hours. It usually means the collared bobcat has died since bobcats rarely sleep for more than three hours. I honed in on the signal and found that it was emanating from the middle of an abandoned farm field. My heart was racing in anticipation of finding out the worst, but I had to wait until daybreak on Dec 26. That was a long night.

At first light, I walked out to the field and what I found was just as surprising. His collar was lying on the ground, but Bobby was no where to be found, despite a thorough search out to 50 yards in all directions. I started to breathe a sigh of relief - it looked as though he had simply pulled the collar off. However, I noticed that the collar was ripped in half. The cause of the rip did not appear to be animal-derived. It appeared that a person ripped it. Then I had a terrible notion of what likely happened. Bobby may have been shot by a hunter who subsequently tore his collar off, and then had him mounted by a taxidermist. To this day I still do not know what really happened. But this last impression angers me.