Winter Home Range and Core Area Size and Overlap of Sibling Adult Female Bobcats (Lynx rufus) in East-central Minnesota

Abstract

Social organization influences carnivore demography, space use, density, and abundance. In bobcats (Lynx rufus) social organization is thought to be affected by multiple interacting factors including relatedness, sex, and prey and conspecific density. To provide baseline data on the effect of relatedness on bobcat social organization, I examined space use and overlap among two sibling, adult female bobcats in east-central Minnesota, and compared these results to previously published research. Estimated bobcat home range size was similar to that of previous studies, suggesting stability in home range size across several decades and reliability in our estimates. Home range and core area overlap was within the range of previous studies. However, the use of two different methods for estimating core area suggested that the subjective use of the 50% utilization distribution would have underestimated core area size and overlap. Although limited, these data provide the first estimates of home range and core area overlap among adult sibling bobcats.