What areas of the country had dry female cats

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I was talking to our biologist the other day and we were discussing the dry female issue that it appears we had last year.

I told him that I had been hearing the same thing from you guys on the internet.

I would be interested if some of you would weigh in on the subject from where you trapped.

It would be interesting to know if this is a climatic drought thing or something else.

Or if it is even happening at all?

Joel

[bobwendt]

kansas. not drought, very wet year. only one litter raised, i.e., titty female. at least another litter as I caught a kitten at one other location. only used the fingernail clippers on one female this year. but plenty dry fattys like a tom.

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

How come?

Joel

[bobwendt]

I`ve no idea. rabbits and birds were thick. great vegetation. everything looking good but no cat reproduction to speak of. the few kittens I did catch were very large, so maybe they were late 2 year olds. at nafa the grader told me the only state that had a bumper cat crop this year was oklahima. I don`t know how he would know. I`d imagine no one will know till the tagging records are in this summer late sometime. not all cats went thru traditional markets this year, but indeed all were tagged.

[walkercoonhunter(Aaron L.)]

this may not concern your question but here in PA it seems as if the cat population doubles every year ....atleast from what i have seen in the last 3-4 yrs.....they used to be very hard to see or even see tracks...but now it seems they are everywhere

[Traveler]

Bone dry here in my area for 'cats this last year.Couldn't buy a 'cat track.One month ago I strapped the 45 colt on and walked just about all day in prime 'cat country.Found one kitten track.B-O-N-E dry !!

[bfflobo]

Joel, catch was 3/4 male, all females were dry. No kittens caught. I think 3 were yearlings. Fairly normal year as far as moisture. Seems to be enough of cotton tails around. Did trap a different area. Higher altitude.? Plenty of coyotes.

[robertw]

Bobcat production was definitely UP in the areas where I trap in the west and south (have trapped heavily in previous years) . Moisture levels were fair in the west with drought conditions in the south.

All together I caught a fair number of milk stained females and kittens, often in areas that have historically ALWAYS been coyote locations.

Personally I believe the coyote population has more to do with lowering bobcat polulations than they are given credit for.

[musher]

No young when there is a good food base makes no sense unless the young were born and died. Or there are no males. Or there is an infertility problem.

[hotandry]

Joel,

Aren't you guys in N. NV. having an above average precip year going on now?

Southern NV has been below normal again I believe. We can't even get 4 inches per year, which is the average. Has been cooler than normal, but dry.

But most of the west has been very wet this winter, including parts of the southwest like NM.

Will be interesting to see if the cat numbers rebound next year after a wet winter.

Or if the rabbit cycle starts to turn upwards. I wonder if the jacks and the cottontails are in sink with their cycles. Kind of seems like it.

I would bet that a bioligist could find out that bobcat numbers follow the rabbit cycle with a year delay in many areas and NV is one of them.

And the rabbit cycle is affected by drought.

IMO, trapping and hunting has an impact. But small in comparison to the ups and downs of the prey species.

[Freak( Jim V.)]

1 kitten , low on big toms , no bred females. Higher female to tom ratio than in past.

[trappnman]

how do oyu know if oy uhave a kitten? Size?

on yotes, its very hard to tell a 10 month old from a 2-3 year old. We classified many of our collred yotes adults by the look of their teeth, weight and size- and found when they later got posted, we were wrong more times than not.

[bobwendt]

cats the kitten size is easy to tell. late litters sometimes no bigger than a housecat. fat amount, tittys, and size. and fur too. anyway, it`s easy to tell. rarely a late litter from last year can mistaken for an early yearling litter. but not enough error to not know something is big time whacked with the cats this year.

[johnthomas]

Since the coons got sick and died off around here starting in september of 2006 all critters seem to have gone haywire, there are almost no coyote pups to trap this season, cats were down, coon are just plain gone in many places, skunks are few inbetween, the red squirrels were abundant the year before and now those same places are just plain empty of them, where packrats were numerous last year they are gone it seems, some places have more than ever but many are just gone, beaver moved out last fall in many places and never returned, their dams were washed out and never repaired, they made no feed beds this fall, the ones caught in early winter were already void of fat, its been a ruff winter with huge icestorms and way to much water but man its just plain spooky in some places to me.

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I think the coyotes have an impact but where I was trapping had been shot out by sheepmen so that wasn't the case where I was. I also noticed lions were down from the recent past where I was so wasn't lions either.

I know the Chukars crashed and rabbits aren't what they have been.

The cats I caught early were rolling in fat and the Feburary cats were skinny, I could see where they had been fat but lost a lot. May have been the big snows in January.

Other than Robert and Aaron it sounds like it is something that is happening in most other places.

Freak you aren't talking about PA but rather out west aren't you?

Joel

[blaine76]

have caught several kittens this year, Caught a female the other day with milk. We have the biggest population of rabbits I have seen in 15 years.

[coloradocat]

Seemed like zero kittens here also. I caught one kitten, and looking back saw very little litter sign. And the kitten tracks were like house cats. But the male/female ratio was normal I suppose, close to 3 to1.

[billcat]

I had 9 cats 33" and under, 7 of them less than 30". About the normal number. All cats and greys were fat through the whole season. Lots of jacks and bunnies. Prey base doesn't seem to be down here, other than an absence of chukars. Seeing plenty of mice and such at night in the headlites and tracks under ledges.

Bill

[Freak( Jim V.)]

No, western. No rabbits except a few jacks , quail and prairie dogs crashed last fall. Only real small game were pocket gophers , plenty of them it seemed. Even the packrats were low in 2 areas I hit this year. think that has alot to do with it. And coyote #s were off too. Mange took alot , but think small game crashing did more in.
It will all cycle back around, small game pop is deciding factor on how fast

[bblwi]

WI has low density of cats so every year manly females are necropsy's and their uterus's are examined for placental scars. If you have females with placental scars and few kittens they conceived and lost the litters or the kittens died after birth. If you have no placental scars on most females they may not have been bred. What were weather conditions during those times in those areas? Fat Toms and fat dry females indicates to me that prey or food shortages were not the issues. Sounds more like a reproduction issue. Males travel a lot but if you take 50-60% of the breeding males say 2006-07 you may have a higher population of unserviced females.

Bryce