In urban to suburban areas, the range of territory usually decreases to 1 or 2 miles. The female bobcat can breed after one year. One to four young are born after a gestation period the period in which offspring are carried in the uterus of 50 to 60 days. An efficient hunter, the bobcat hunts by sight and usually at night.
Seeing a bobcat during the day is not uncommon because they sleep for only 2 to 3 hours at a time. In Florida, squirrels, rabbits and rats are the primary prey species. Occasionally, a bobcat will take a feral cat or domestic chicken. Since Florida is an important wintering area for migrating birds, the bobcat's winter diet reflects this abundance and includes ground-dwelling birds such as towhees, robins, catbirds and thrashers.
Florida bobcats are habitat generalists which means that they can adapt to live in many different habitats. These solitary animals have territory ranges in rural settings that can be up to 6 square miles male and in populated or suburban areas up to 2 square miles. Usually, for breeding purposes, males have larger ranges than females. Breeding season and a mother raising kittens are the only times when this species keeps company with fellow members. Within their ranges bobcats are opportunistic carnivores, meaning that they will eat any creature that they are able to catch.
Hunting occurs at dawn, dusk and night. Though rodents are preferred, they will eat amphibians, small reptiles, small pets and livestock, birds and even eggs and carrion dead animals.
They sometimes cover their kill with dirt, grass and debris and return to it later, this behavior is called caching. Once a female reaches sexual maturity at around 1 year of age and a male at approximately 2 years of age, they will mate. The season for mating in Florida is August-March. After a gestation period pregnancy of up to 60 days, kittens will be born. The female raises them in a den created out of a hole in rocks, trees, logs, debris piles or even dense vegetation.
At the time of birth their eyes and ears are closed. The mother takes care of them alone until they the following breeding season. After leaving their mother they disperse to territories of their own. They drift through the swamps in the middle of the night like ghosts in a foggy dream. Fierce predators that can take down prey much larger than themselves, bobcats are near the top of the food chain in a state that's known for large, deadly critters. Smaller in stature than the state animal — the Florida panther — bobcats are found throughout the Sunshine State and fill an important ecological role by keeping small mammal numbers at a healthy level.
The institute is an arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state agency charged with protecting wildlife. Panther pangs: How I may have contributed to the demise of our state mammal. Bobcat found injured: In Cape Coral dies at rehabilitation facility.
Although there are no population estimates, bobcats have adapted relatively well to modern development in Southwest Florida and can be seen in preserves and on farm lands. While panthers need giant swaths of land to hunt and breed, bobcats can often find enough space and food in neighborhood wildlife preserves. Sometimes called wildcats, bobcats have long legs and big paws, according to the U.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
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