Passport to Texas

Bobcats serve an ecosystem function.

Urban Bobcats--Big Kitties in the Cities Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

You might be surprised to learn that wildlife is all around. Even in large Texas cities.

Bobcats thrive very well in urban areas. They’re extraordinarily adaptive.

Richard Heilbrun is the conservation outreach leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says bobcats can find everything they need to survive in cities.

And so they will use the greenbelts and the city parks and the rivers and the creeks that run through our cities as travel corridors. And in those habitats, those greenbelts, they’ll find the rats and the snakes and the mice and the birds necessary for them to thrive.

It’s rare to see an urban bobcat. But it does happen; when it does, Richard says reactions vary.

People have all sorts of reactions to bobcats. Some are excited. Some are worried. Some are nervous for the bobcat. Some think that it wound up there by mistake. And other people are afraid, because they don’t know how bobcats act. And so they’re coming to us with a wide range of questions, preconception, or ideas about outcomes that they think should happen. And we get to help them navigate whatever reaction they have into a solution that’s good for the bobcat and good for the people.

What you should know about urban bobcats. That’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series and funds research on the ecology of urban bobcats in DFW.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Bobcats serve an ecosystem function.

The Ecosystem Functions of Wildlife Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Golf courses, cemeteries, creeks, parks and greenbelts, all common in urban areas, provide habitat for wildlife.

In a typical greenbelt [for example], you’ll find owls and hawks and songbirds and lizards and snakes and coyotes and bobcats. And all of those put together form a functional ecosystem that only exists in those urban areas.

Richard Heilbrun is team lead for the urban wildlife technical guidance program. These biologists work with communities to ensure humans and wildlife coexist comfortably.

Most people recognize that seeing wildlife is a great thing, and they feel fortunate to see that wildlife. Every once in a while we get folks who are nervous, but once they talk to our urban wildlife biologists, and are told this is a good thing, they change their perception fairly quickly. So, someone that might be nervous about seeing a coyote, when they call an urban wildlife biologist and are told that coyote populations perform an ecosystem function – they keep those rats at bay, or they make sure that the skunk populations don’t go haywire. So, when they realize there’s a benefit, their perception changes fairly quickly.

Find your urban biologist when you log onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series and helps fund Wildlife technical guidance and assistance to urbanites of Texas.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.