People listen to public testimony on proposed bobcat trapping rules Thursday at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. Jayden Kennett | Daily Journal
FRANKLIN — About a dozen people gathered Thursday at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Franklin to ask the Indiana Natural Resources Commission to set a regulated trapping of bobcats quota to zero and to allow for more data to be acquired.
A state law passed last year requires the commission, known as the NRC, to establish a bobcat hunting season no later than July 1. To comply with state law, advocates ask that the quota be set to zero until more data can be gathered and interpreted.
The proposed rule changes would add bobcats to the list of species for which a game breeder’s license is required, establish a bobcat trapping season in 40 southern Indiana counties, including a bag limit of one bobcat per trapper and a season quota of 250 bobcats. The rule would also allow bobcats and their parts to be sold, including those found dead to be kept by people with a permit. Johnson County is among the 40 counties.
Trapping methods under the rule include cage traps, steel-jawed leghold traps and strangulation cable wire snares to catch bobcats and hold them until they are killed.
The proposed changes have some worried that trapping is inhumane and that there isn’t enough data to confidently say the bobcat population could be sustained if allowed.
State officials say they are confident the population in southern Indiana is sufficient to withstand a regulated harvest due to an increase in the bobcat population. There is also an increase in the number of bobcats accidentally taken, with more than 130 mortalities reported annually since 2010, according to state data.
The department is only proposing an open bobcat season in the 40 counties where there is a healthy, reproductive population with habitats shown to be able to support the growing bobcat population, officials said.
Some counties have suitable habitats, but fewer documented bobcats, the NRC said. The department considers the counties where there are fewer bobcats to be emerging bobcat populations and is not currently proposing to open additional counties to trapping.
The NRC opened a second public comment period for proposed changes at the end of December after receiving substantive comments during the first public comment period. This included a second public hearing as well, which was held at Scott Hall Thursday.
The hearing was the final chance for the public to comment before the NRC votes on the proposed changes, as the comment period ended Thursday night.
A handful of people made comments both in person and online. Many questioned the data being used to establish the quota. Those opposed say there is insufficient evidence of high bobcat populations and the trapping quota is too high.
Wildlife biologists, animal rights activists and an engineer questioned the reliability of the data. Bobcats were endangered in Indiana from 1969 to 2005 and were removed from the endangered species list after conservation efforts helped the population recover.
Phil Tapp, a Marion County resident who grew up in Morgantown, said he strongly opposed the rule because there is not enough solid evidence to justify the rule. Tapp sympathizes with farmers who have had livestock killed by bobcats and thinks permits should be allowed in those instances only, he said. However, he said permit fees should be much higher than what is proposed.
Bobcats are important to biodiversity and a balanced ecosystem, said Mary Madore, a biologist and landowner in Monroe County. Bobcats indirectly aid in the management of deer populations and removing bobcats through trapping will disrupt and potentially amplify biodiversity issues, she said. She questioned the state’s data, asking how they could confirm that bobcat sightings are different bobcats and not the same one spotted multiple times.
“How do you know that the nine sightings were not one bobcat spotted nine times?” Madore said at the hearing. “For that matter, how do you know the one spotted in Brown County is not the same cat from Monroe County, with all the ecological disasters happening across the United States that indiscriminately kill all wildlife and destroy their habitat, it seems prudent to protect the awesome wildlife we have now, why take the chance?”
Madore is also concerned that the trapping methods, particularly the foothold and cable traps, are inhumane and domestic animals risk getting caught in the traps as well.
The current fee structure should also be increased if the rule goes into effect, she said.
Thomas Hodnett of Bartholomew County disagrees. Hodnett said he believes the proposed quota of 250 bobcats is too low and is concerned that bobcats will kill too much wildlife, particularly wild turkeys.
“One wild turkey killed by a bobcat is one way too many,” Hodnett said. “If you don’t get them in check now they’ll be like a coyote.”
The number of landowners requesting a permit to take bobcats that are killing livestock and poultry increased from 14 in 2018 to 28 in 2023, state data shows. Surrounding states, including Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan, have seasons to take bobcats.
Retired engineer Dave Fox warned the department to “act cautiously” before making a decision. The Purdue University population model, which is what the NRC has used to track bobcat numbers, has “significant uncertainties” and “specific numbers should be treated with skepticism and caution,” he said.
A harvest of 250 bobcats per year is predicted to allow the population to increase by 15% over 10 years, he said. According to the same model, a harvest of 450 bobcats per year would result in the elimination of all bobcats within 10 years, he said.
“If the model is off by a relatively small amount, it could make a big difference,” Fox said. “Given the population, the model predicts such entirely different outcomes with differences of only 200 bobcats per year and given that there are a number of estimates and uncertainties built into some of the assumptions of the model, including the current bobcat population in Indiana, it seems advisable to act cautiously.”
Fox recommended the department choose a harvest level “significantly below” 250 a year. Ideally, the number should be set at zero to allow time to gather additional data, he said.
Wildlife biologist Zane Libke, whose master’s is in a field focused on using computer models and data analysis to better understand ecological systems, echoed similar sentiments. He brought flyers to distribute and alleged that the department had failed to do an adequate study on the bobcat population.
Libke, who was emotional during some parts of his testimony, is concerned about the rule change because of bobcats importance to regulate ecosystems, he said. The data is “one of the worst pieces of science” that Libke has seen, he said.
“It’s really sad to see our lawmakers and people making the decisions are making decisions based on such misguided data,” Libke said.
The data is misguided because it is based on circumstantial evidence, taking the amount of roadkill as an indicator of increasing population size without considering the increase in construction for Interstate 69, he said.
Libke is “pretty sure” that the bobcat population is increasing in the state, but to what level is uncertain. Using available data, Libke created his own model and predicted that if the state goes forward with allowing 250 bobcats a year to be harvested, the population could reach total extinction within five to 10 years.
He acknowledges there is a lack of available data and assumptions in his model as well.
“I am here today in favor of setting the trapping quota to zero before we do anything to mess with this. Because it seems wholly irresponsible to me to mess with the population of our one remaining predator species in the state,” he said.
In 2018, the Natural Resources Commission rejected a similar proposal due to overwhelming public opposition. A similar bill was filed in 2019, but never got a hearing, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
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