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COUNCIL BLUFFS — Bobcats are becoming more active as their ranges and populations expand in western Iowa. As a result, their bodies frequently are showing up along local highways after being struck by local motorists.
Steve Lewis, fire captain at Station No. 6, recovered the body of a male bobcat this week along Old Lincoln Highway near Mud Hollow Road.
“I was just coming to work this morning, and it had just got hit,” he said. “There was a black squirrel not too far from it, and I'm thinking maybe he jumped up there for that black squirrel and got hit.”
Several bobcats have been reported hit recently, said Brian Smith, Pottawattamie County game warden for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
“In the city limits of Council Bluffs, this is my third in the last three weeks,” he said.
One was found on a gravel road off Railroad Highway, and the other was on Highway 6 near Railroad Highway, he said. There have been reports of bobcats showing up on remote cameras, too — cameras deer hunters set up to determine the animals' pathways.
“This time of the year, they're out all hours of the night or early morning. And with the amount of traffic out there, obviously you're going to have animals hit by cars,” said Matt Veon, a park ranger at Lake Manawa State Park. “I hate to see wild animals end up like this.”
The male cat found this week was almost 3 feet long and 21 inches tall at his hindquarters, Lewis said. He estimated that the animal weighed at least 40 pounds.
Local Department of Natural Resources staff will skin the animal and pull a tooth so the animal can be aged by the rings in the tooth, Smith said. On females, they will pull the reproductive tract and count the placental scars. That helps wildlife biologists estimate the reproduction rate and population of the state's bobcats.
“They pull quite a bit of information from the carcasses,” he said.
Iowa has a pretty healthy bobcat population, he said.
“Their ranges are expanding, their population is expanding,” he said.
Bobcat hunting season starts Saturday in Iowa and continues until Jan. 10 or until the statewide limit of 200 cats is reached — whichever comes first — Smith said. “It won't take anywhere near that long to get the quota,” he said.
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