Passport to Texas

 

This is Passport to Texas

When you think of urban wildlife, birds and squirrels come to mind, but bobcats? If you live in the DFW area they do… and Texas Parks and Wildlife is studying them.

05—We’re hoping to answer some very basic questions about urban bobcats, something that we know very little about.

Biologist, Derek Browman, says we’ve studied bobcats in rural settings, but need to fill knowledge gaps regarding the urban jungle.

10—We’re genuinely looking at an area that is completely encompassed by human development

Julie Golla is a graduate student, working with TPW, and whose research looks at how bobcats navigate the city.

15—It started out with cameras; cameras have been very important, not only to see the number of animals, but also to find those hot spots, where we can catch them in a quick and efficient manner. We’ve gotten quite a few bobcats on camera; on trails that we do get bobcat traffic – that’s where we’ll put our traps.

They take vitals from trapped cats, and then fit them with GPS collars to track and collect data. Some bobcat traps end up on golf courses.

08—When they’re developing a golf course, they don’t realize the strip of trees between fairways is serving a corridor for wildlife, but it works quite well for us.

We’ll have more on wild kitties in the city tomorrow. The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series, and is funded by your purchase of fishing and hunting equipment and motor boat fuel… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.