Bobcat Population Still Small But On The Rise In New Jersey

NEW JERSEY — A 5-year-old Colorado girl had the staring contest of her life on April 10 after a bobcat jumped into her back yard and locked eyes with her; such encounters may become more common in New Jersey and elsewhere as bobcat populations rebound.

The little girl is fine after the face-to-face encounter with the medium-size cat that is typically about twice as big as an average house cat. A North Carolina family had a more frightening encounter with a bobcat that later tested positive rabies, and had to take the rabies vaccine.

In most cases, experts say, people catch only a fleeting glimpse of the stealthy cats, which are as disinterested in confronting humans as they are in being confronted.

With the exception of Delaware, bobcats are found in every corner of the continental U.S. Most states, such as New Jersey, have seen a rise in the bobcat population, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management.

In New Jersey, the population is estimated at only 106. The study — which relied on public sightings, hunter surveys and the number of bobcats hit by vehicles, among other measures — found “bobcat populations are expanding across much of their geographic range.”

“These increases are likely attributable primarily to multiple factors including habitat availability, increased prey density, changing land-use practices and intense harvest management at the state level,” according to the study.

The resurgence doesn’t mean human-bobcat encounters will become an everyday occurrence.

Bobcats tend to shy away from humans, according to Ted Stankowich, a behavioral ecologist at California State University, Long Beach. Typically, bobcats hunt rodents and rabbits for food and stay away from suburban neighborhoods, he told The New York Times.

However, there have been some cases where bobcats do come into contact with humans.

In the incident with the girl in Colorado, the bobcat was chasing a rabbit beforeits stare-down with the 5-year-old, according to KDVR-TV. The bobcat eventually left the back yard after 22 seconds and the girl was unharmed.

In North Carolina a rabid bobcat attacked a man and woman earlier this month after it had wandered into their neighborhood. The man ran after the bobcat and shot at it with a handgun, killing the animal.

In the event a person does encounter a bobcat in suburbia, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife does have some recommendations on how to act if a bobcat gets too close:

• Try to scare the animal away by shouting and waving your arms in the air to appear larger.
• If handy, use a hose to shoot water at a bobcat.
• Throw rocks at the animal.