CONCORD, NH — The New Hampshire Fish and Game Commission today voted 5 to 4 to move forward on a proposal to establish a bobcat hunting and trapping season in New Hampshire.
The Fish and Game Commission is proposing to issue a total of 50 bobcat permits through a lottery process. The draft season would be similar to New Hampshire’s fisher season, with December trapping and January hunting. The proposal would take effect in December of 2016.
“As our bobcat population has increased and expanded, some New Hampshire residents have expressed an interest in hunting and/or trapping bobcats. Other residents have expressed an interest in seeing the bobcat population continue to grow. The conservative bobcat season being proposed for New Hampshire is designed to accommodate both of these interests and is consistent with the Department’s mission,” said NH Fish & Game Commission Chair Ted Tichy.
So how will a bobcat harvest effect the current population?
To illustrate, if you assume New Hampshire’s current bobcat population is about 1,500 and has annual growth rate of 10 percent, the current population will expand by 150 bobcats this year. The proposed bobcat season would allow for the issuance of 50 permits or a maximum take of 50 animals (fewer animals are actually expected to be taken). The net result of said season would be 100 additional cats in the New Hampshire population (rather than 150 in the absence of said season).
In essence, the proposed season will allow for continued growth in the state’s population, at a reduced growth rate, until the population approaches biological carrying capacity, at which point the population will stabilize. Note that these projections are based on recently collected productivity and survival estimates from New Hampshire bobcats, thereby ensuring that our bobcat population continues to grow.
Sighting data suggest that New Hampshire’s bobcat population has increased and expanded since 1990. Complaints about bobcats are also on the increase. Bobcat density data suggest that our population is comparable to those of neighboring states.
Doing the math
Habitat occupancy data suggest that we have approximately 1,400 breeding bobcats in New Hampshire, as of the winter of 2014. Reproductive and age data collected from New Hampshire bobcats during the period 2007 – 2014, which is used to estimate productivity and survival rates, suggests that New Hampshire’s bobcat population has been growing at an annual rate of approximately 10 percent.
NH Fish and Game closed bobcat hunting and trapping in 1989 because of documented population declines at that time. Declines were not isolated to New Hampshire; bobcat numbers had decreased throughout the animals’ northeast range. Interestingly, while New Hampshire chose to close bobcat hunting and trapping, our neighboring states of Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont did not alter bobcat hunting or trapping during this timeframe and have continued bobcat hunting and trapping practices to the present day. Unlike New Hampshire, the states that continued to harvest were able to monitor bobcat population increases over the past decades through data collected from hunters and trappers.
Currently 38 states allow some form of regulated harvest, as do multiple Canadian provinces. In the Northeast alone, bobcat harvest is allowed in Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Bobcat harvest occurs in all states and provinces bordering New Hampshire.
The next step for the rule proposal is approval by the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR).
Click here for more background on New Hampshire’s bobcat season proposal.
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