FAIRBORN, Ohio (WYSO) — Late last month, a rare bobcat was spotted in Fairborn. Greene County has only had a handful of recent bobcat sightings – 11, to be exact.
Settlers had largely driven the bobcat out of Ohio, but biologists observed in the early 2000s that the state’s bobcat population was recovering, thanks to the return of its habitat and migration from neighboring states, said Catherine Dennison, a biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
“We’ve actually seen a rise from very few resident bobcats to a very well-established bobcat population in southeastern and southern Ohio in a relatively short period of time – 20 to 30 years,” she said. “And it’s still spreading all the way to your area there in southwest Ohio.”
In Greene County, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources did not receive its first report of a sighting of a modern bobcat until 2020.
Allen McGrew, a geology professor at the University of Dayton and a member of the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association, was the one who made the recent sighting and reported it to the state. McGrew said he was on a walk through Beerman Fen, one of the association’s properties, when he noticed the cat in time to snap a photo of it.
He said bobcats are at the top of the food chain, which is a sign that the prey population is doing well, too.
“I know it’s a blessing for the volunteers who have worked so hard to preserve this corridor and create a place that welcomes a broader sense of community, where we as people can come together but also have commonalities with nature,” McGrew said.
Based on a Study 2015 As the bobcat population recovers in Ohio, rabbits, deer and large rodents make up the majority of the bobcats’ diet.
Dennison said people should be relatively safe around bobcats, but they should be cautious for the sake of their smaller pets.
“As with all wildlife, if you see them, you should definitely keep your distance and not disturb them. But in general, bobcats are more afraid of us than we are of them. When they realize you’re there, they usually just run,” she said.
Dennison said bobcats prefer to stay in more natural areas, but this bobcat was found just a few hundred yards from restaurants and less than a quarter mile from Interstate 675.
