Bobcats, Sussex County, NJ

A nice post, report and a clear video of some bobcats sighted (a rare enough sight in NJ) while hiking the Cedar Swamp Trail in High Point State Park by the folks at NJ Hiking. 

And it wasn't reported as being a mountain lion!

see njhiking.com/bobcats-new-jersey

Increased Human Interactions with Bobcats

The bobcat population dropped in the past few decades. They were once fairly common in the state. But the population is on the rise again and if the trend continues the species may move from the state's endangered species list to be listed as threatened.

By the 1970s, bobcats were extremely rare primarily due to massive deforestation. A restoration project by the NJDEP relocated dozens of bobcats in North Jersey, and sightings began to increase by the 1990s.

The increased numbers also mean increased interactions with humans, including more bobcats killed by automobiles. In 2019, a state-record 15 bobcats were killed by vehicles and most road-killed bobcats are less than two years old.

Bobcats are restricted mainly to northern New Jersey with very few confirmed records in the past several years south of Route 78. Most sightings occur in Warren, Sussex, Passaic and Morris counties, but in 2017, New Jersey received the first confirmed observations from Mercer County in decades.

Bobcats rarely cause conflict with humans and generally avoid people. If you encounter one, give them some space and they will probably run away. As described by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, these medium-sized cats are a shy animal that's larger than a housecat but much smaller than a cougar or lion. They prefer to prey on rabbits, mice, squirrels, turkeys, and ground-nesting songbirds. Bobcats may also feed on small or sick deer. They are not usually found in urban areas and in the wild prefer to den in crevices in rocks, under fallen logs, in thick tangles of vegetation, or under the root mass of a fallen tree.

If you see a bobcat, report it because a sighting helps officials track the species. Use the NJDEP form at state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/rprtform.htm to report any rare wildlife in New Jersey. Call 1-877-WARN-DEP if you spot a dead or injured bobcat.

NJDEP Bobcat Fact Sheet https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/end-thrtened/bobcat.pdf

Providing Wild Crossings for Endangered Species

Turtle using a tunnel under a roadway

CHANJ is Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey, an effort to make New Jersey's landscape and roadways more permeable for terrestrial wildlife. By identifying key areas and actions needed to achieve habitat connectivity across the state, CHANJ offers statewide mapping and a Guidance Document to help prioritize land protection, inform habitat restoration and management, and guide mitigation of road barrier effects on wildlife and their habitats.

Mackenzie Hall, ENSP biologist

CHANJ is featured in a new episode of the PBS show, EcoSense for Living.  In this episode, "Wild Crossings," NJ is one of three major habitat connectivity projects, from North Carolina to New Jersey, that are helping wildlife navigate our increasingly developed world.  

In this program, CHANJ comes in at the 14-minute mark but I recommend watching the entire 26-minute episode. The CHANJ portion is 12 minutes and covers salamander migrations, turtle tunnels, timber rattlesnakes, and various connectivity projects of the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife. You will even meet the Division's bobcat scat-sniffing dog, Fly.

In finding food and finding mates and adapting to climate change, these creatures must overcome all the obstacles humans and nature have put in their way. This project, which once relied solely on volunteers physically moving the smaller amphibians, is using more sustainable methods to help animals find safe passage in our increasingly developed state.

This time of year is especially important for amphibians who are coming out of hibernation and moving to area with water and vernal pools for their short breeding season.

Volunteer transferring a frog across a roadway on a spring night

Spotted salamander entering a tunnel

Despite our well-known population density, we are fortunate that NJ is also a recognized leader in preserving open spaces for recreation, agriculture, and nature. Nearly one-third of the state’s landmass is now in permanent preservation. NJ boasts a higher percentage of publicly-owned forest land than any other state east of the Mississippi (Widmann 2004). Healthy, connected ecosystems are an important part of that.

Bobcat in the northern NJ "Bobcat Corridor"

Bobcat using a dry terrestrial pathway under a road

All images via pbs.org video

Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey

Connecting Habitat Across New Jersey (CHANJ) is a statewide effort to make our landscape and roadways more permeable to wildlife movement.

Whether they’re small like a salamander or big and wide-roaming like a bear, animals need to be able to move through the landscape to find food, shelter, mates, and other resources. Without that ability to move, healthy populations simply will not persist over the long term. Here in New Jersey, wildlife are up against steady urbanization, a dense network of roads, and now a changing climate, all of which put the connectedness of our habitats and wildlife populations in jeopardy.

For example, one project is the Waterloo Road Amphibian Passage System in Byram Twp., Sussex County.

At Waterloo Road in Byram, more than 300 salamanders and frogs per hour have been tallied crossing a quarter-mile stretch on peak migration nights. Their goal is to reach the vernal pool on the other side, lay eggs, and journey back to the forest again. The tiny migrants are up against about 50 vehicles per hour or more - grim odds given that just 15 cars per hour can kill more than 50% of all amphibians trying to cross a road. Even with rescue teams patrolling Waterloo on foot, roadkill rates are always over 10% (Hall and Triece 2012-2017). For Spotted Salamanders, annual road mortality of more than 10% can lead to local extirpation (Gibbs and Shriver 2005).

Another project is creating Bobcat Alley in Sussex and Warren Counties, which we have written about here before. For more information: state.nj.us/dep/fgw/ensp/pdf/chanj_bobcatalley.pdf

Dogs and Bobcats

The Creature Show has been hard at work on an episode about endangered bobcats in New Jersey. As part of that work, the filmmakers are running a Kickstarter campaign to fund its completion:

They have two weeks left to go to reach their goal, so if you can help out, go to:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1480255348/dogs-and-bobcats?ref=project_link



Bobcat Release from Hundred Year Films on Vimeo.

"Dogs and Bobcats" is the name of this short documentary. It features Bear, a wildlife detection dog who is helping New Jersey biologists conduct a bobcat population study.

Bobcats are an endangered species in New Jersey and the study is to create a baseline estimate of how many bobcats are left in the state.

The Creature Show is an ongoing series of short films about threatened and endangered species in New Jersey. "Dogs and Bobcats" is the fifth installment of the series. You can watch past episodes at www.creatureshow.com.

Rehabilitated Bobcat Returned to New Jersey Woods

Bobcat release            Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com

A nice rehabilitation story about a bobcat whose hind leg was crushed by a car in November being returned to the wild at Wawayanda State Park in March.

Vehicle strikes are a major threats to bobcats, and about a half dozen bobcats are reported killed by vehicles each year.

Bobcats, which resemble domestic cats es[ecially before maturity, grow to about 2 feet tall. They studiously avoid human contact, but increased sightings in the northern part of the state show some population growth.

This particular bobcat, who was about 6 months old when hit, was released at Wawayanda by staff from the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife.

The animal was rehabilitated at the nonprofit Woodlands Wildlife Refuge in Hunterdon County. It has sustained multiple femur and joint fractures to its hind leg. The bobcat needed pins, wires, screws and plates to repair the damage.

"This success story is a testament to the important work the Division of Fish and Wildlife does every day to conserve and protect our remarkably diverse populations of wildlife," said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin. "The division would not be able to do this type of work if not for the strong partnerships it has built with groups such as the Woodlands Wildlife Refuge and the generous support from those who donate a portion of their state income-tax returns to wildlife conservation."

As we have written here before, the endangered bobcats are New Jersey's only species of wild cat. Most NJ bobcats live in the northwestern corner of the state.

It has made some recovery in the state from a time when it had vanished (nearly extirpated) from the state. , but has been making a slow recovery following introduction of bobcats from Maine in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of the population lives in the northwestern part of the state.

SOURCE: http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/passaic/2017/03/29/state-releases-bobcat-into-wawayanda-west-milford/99740518/