In Vermont, state wildlife biologist Mark Freeman and his colleague Olivia LeMaistre are trying to determine how a species that's typically wary of humans is faring as development expands into rural areas.
COLCHESTER, Vt. — For one afternoon earlier this month on the back roads of Vermont's most populous county, a 26-pound female bobcat dubbed B15 became the hunted.
"She's probably maybe a football field and a half in front of us," Freeman said. "She's right off in that scrub, some of the thicker stuff maybe."
In tracking B15 in Chittenden County, state wildlife biologist Mark Freeman and his colleague Olivia LeMaistre are trying to determine how a species that's typically wary of humans is faring as development expands into rural areas.
Their program is among many in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant program that has spent $317 million since 2001 to gauge the health of wildlife populations across the country and in U.S. territories.
In New Hampshire, biologists are encouraging school children to plant blue lupines that Karner blue butterflies need to survive. There are also programs to protect bats in Pennsylvania, bay scallops in New York and the Pine Barren tree frog in New Jersey.
"It's to look at the critters out there that haven't had dedicated funding and direct some funding to them," said Dee Mazzarese, who helps administer the grants for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from Virginia to Maine.
In Vermont, the $300,000, four-year bobcat study is one of about 40 projects that have been funded with the help of the federal program.
The program has also bankrolled studies of Bicknell's thrush on top of Mount Mansfield and helped develop a butterfly directory and a wildlife planning manual for towns.
"For a lot of these species it's the first time any biologist has had a chance to spend any time on them," said Jon Kart, who has helped coordinate state plans.
Vermont's bobcats are thought to live around rock ledges and wetlands. They probably use regular corridors for traveling, said Kim Royar, who leads the state fish and wildlife department's fur bearer team.
"We know that bobcats are a fairly adaptable animal," Royar said.
What came as a surprise to Freeman was that many are living in suburban back yards at the edge of the state's most populated areas.
It's where new homes are filling abandoned farm fields, once ideal hunting ground for the bobcats. They feed on song birds, turkeys, partridge, mice, the occasional rabbit and the even more occasional deer.
Freeman said there have been no reports of problems between bobcats and people.
"They are very aloof," he said. "The cats run away right away."
Freeman has led a team that started trapping the bobcats last spring. The cats are lured into box cages using beaver carcasses and other bait. Over the course of the season the team caught 20 cats. Some were too small to outfit with the collars and were released. Four cats are now being tracked.
The cats are outfitted with radio collars, which are designed to track their travels and fall off after 130 days. The information collected can be fed into a computer after the collars are retrieved.
State fish and wildlife officials hope to use the data to develop a plan to better manage the bobcat population, which could include habitat protection.
B15 was trapped in January on the west side of Colchester Pond. Since then it's been tracked back and forth across Colchester, which lies just north of Burlington, and regularly crosses Interstate 89.
But there are indications it uses an underpass or culvert and does not cross four lanes of traffic.
The two researchers did not see B15 that afternoon, nor did they want to. But they noted her location before heading south. They later tracked bobcat B17, another female.
They made no effort to let the bobcats know they were being followed.
"All we need to know is that they're OK," LeMaistre said.
Source: Associated Press
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