The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has new rules to regulate hunting and trapping of bobcats throughout the state for the upcoming bobcat season, the first in more than 40 years.
Illinois conservation officers estimate the statewide bobcat population to be 3,000 to 5,000, with the southernmost counties having the most bobcat habitats.
Gov. Bruce Rauner and state lawmakers worked to legalize a bobcat season last year.
“The increase in the bobcat population has been a Midwestern phenomenon,” Bob Bluett, a wildlife diversity biologist for the Illinois DNR Division of Wildlife, told the Southeast Illinois News. “Our goal is to allow the bobcats to continue to increase but at a slower rate.”
The 2016-17 bobcat hunting and trapping season is set to begin on Nov. 10. The hunting season will run through Jan. 31, 2017, and the trapping season will run through Jan. 25,
There will be 500 hunting and trapping permits available on a first-come, first-serve basis this fall via a lottery. There will be a $5 fee to purchase space in the lottery. A permit will allow a person to take one bobcat by hunting, trapping or salvaging a roadkill bobcat. The season will limit one bobcat per person.
People interested in applying for a permit may apply online at www.dnr.illinois.gov through Sept. 30.
“Southern and West Central Illinois are the hotspots,” Bluett said.
Taking bobcats will be prohibited in East Central and Northeastern Illinois.
“Our goal is a maximum of 10 percent of the highest bobcat population estimate, so we are issuing 500 permits,” Bluett said. “This first year will give us an indication of the success rate. If it is close to 100 percent, we wouldn’t change anything; but if it is just 10 percent, then we would issue more permits in the future to get us closer to our harvest goal, which is between 300 and 500 bobcats.”
After a bobcat is taken, there is a separate $5 fee to register the bobcat. The Illinois DNR will mail a federal tag within two to three weeks to affix to each bobcat pelt before it can be exported or transferred to a fur buyer, taxidermist, fur tanner or garment manufacturer.
Bobcats are feline predators about twice the size of a domestic cat.
“They are one of the most widely distributed carnivores in Northern America,” Bluett said.
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