WILDLIFE Bobcat found in Lake County

AKRON -- Kirtland Hills Police discovered a road killed, 28-pound, male bobcat on Interstate 90 in southwest Lake County recently, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife.
"Young bobcats often disperse many, many miles from the area where they were born in search of new territory. We have seen increasing numbers of sightings reported in recent years indicating a corresponding increase in the state population of these secretive small cats," said Dan Kramer, DOW wildlife management supervisor for Northeast Ohio. "We have no way to tell if this bobcat is a resident animal. No tags were found on the animal, and it is fully clawed, suggesting that this is a wild animal as opposed to someone's escaped and properly permitted possession," Kramer explained.
The carcass will be mounted for educational purposes and a tooth will be sent to Waterloo Wildlife Research Station in Athens, Ohio, to determine the age of the bobcat.
Bobcats were found throughout Ohio during early settlement, but as land was converted for crops and communities, populations declined. By 1850, bobcats could no longer be found in the state. A handful of unverified sightings in the 1960s marked the bobcat's unofficial return to Ohio. Since 1970, state wildlife biologists have documented 70 verified bobcat sightings from 31 counties.
As a state endangered species, the bobcat is protected by state law. For more about Ohio's wildlife diversity, visit the division's Web page at ohiodnr.com.