IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Neale, J.C.C.; Sacks, B.N.; Jaeger, M.M.; McCullough, D.R. | |
| A comparison of bobcat and coyote predation on lambs in north-coastal California | |
| 1998 Journal of Wildlife Management (62): 700-706 | |
We investigated predation on lambs by bobcats _(Lynx rufus) _relative to coyotes _(Canis latrans) _from June 1994 through November 1995 at Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) in north-coastal California, where both predators occur at equally high densities. Lamb losses during this study were typical for HREC and surrounding ranches and included 64 (5.3% of lambs pastured) confirmed predator kills and 134 (11.1 %) missing individuals. Fifty-seven of the predator-killed lambs were attributed to coyotes, whereas none were assigned to bobcats. The proportion of bobcat scats containing sheep remains was small (4.2%), and occurrence did not peak in the lambing season. suggesting that sheep consumed by bobcats were scavenged. Sheep were common in coyote scats (21.4%) and occurred most frequently in scats from the winter-spring lambing season. Coyotes were responsible for all lamb kills in intensively monitored pastures for which predator species could he identified. Use of space by radio-collared bobcats was not noticeably influenced by the presence of lambs. We concluded that bobcats were not important predators of lambs at HHEC and not the cause- for the relatively large numbers of lambs missing and unaccounted for each year. |
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