The Bobcat -- also known as the Bay Lynx, Wildcat, Red Lynx and Swamp Tiger -- is our state's only feline predator.  It's scientific name is Felis Rufus, and it is closely related to the Canada Lynx, which is not found in Pennsylvania.  Tawny, tireless, smooth-moving and shy, Bobcats are truly beautiful animals.  Few persons ever actually see a bobcat and spotting one in the wild is a tremendous thrill.  Despite the Bobcat's elusiveness, many Pennsylvanians are intrigued by this predator.

Although this is Pennsylvania's only wild cat, the Bobcat is smaller than many folks imagine, being little larger than a big house cat.  A mature Bobcat averages 36 inches in length, including a stubby, six-inch tail. This bobbed tail gives the Bobcat its name.  Pennsylvania Bobcats weigh 15-20 pounds, with large individuals as heavy as 35 pounds.

The Bobcat's smaller size causes it to feed mainly on small mammals such as mice, wood rats, shrews, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, rabbits, and hares but like most other predators, cats are opportunists, and porcupine, mink, muskrat, skunk, fish, frog, insect and fox remains have also been found in their stomachs.  Occasionally bobcats take sick, weak or crippled deer, but predation by cats has little or no effect on the size of Pennsylvania's deer herd.

Early in this century, much of Pennsylvania was brushy, second-growth forest allowing large populations of the Bobcat's favorite foods.  This terrific animal food supply and abundant uninhabited land allowed the bobcat to prosper. But when the forest matured, when saplings and sprouts grew into mature timber, when brush, thick laurel and blackberry tangles were replaced by a bare forest floor--and when man's cities and towns continued to expand--the amount of habitat suitable for bobcats shrank.  This resulted in a decreased population of Bobcats to the point that they were given total protection within our state in 1970.

In Pennsylvania, bobcats usually inhabit mountains, deep forests, swamps, and occasionally,
agricultural areas.  Obviously, bobcats will live in areas where they can find ample shelter and food.  Bobcats seem to prosper in remote areas near clearcuts. Studies have shown that the number of small mammals--wood rats, mice, shrews, etc.--increases following clearcutting (due to better food and cover conditions), and apparently cats respond to this increased prey supply. Oak leaf roller and gypsy moth caterpillars, insect pests which kill timber, may also indirectly increase small mammal populations by opening up the forest canopy and thus stimulating low, brushy growth.

Forest management to provide more prey, as well as monitoring Bobcat populations, has resulted in an increased cat population over the past 20 years.  The Bobcat has increased in number statewide and have been continually expanding their range.