IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Duke, T. | |
| The Bobcat Cycle | |
| 1984 Conservation Nova Scotia (8) | |
Three hundred dollars was not an unusual price for a Nova Scotian trapper to get for a bobcat pelt in the late 1970's. Quickly word got around that long haired fur (foxes, raccoons, and bobcats), was valuable. So in two years the number of trapper's licenses the Department sold almost doubled. The trapper wanted most to catch a bobcat, and, luckily enough, the bobcat population was high because their maid food item, the rabbit, was also at the peak of its cycle. Than came the crash. By 1981 the rabbit population had fallen. By 1982-83 the bobcats fell and by 1983-84 trapping license sales were back to early 1970 levels. The pelt price had fallen too but that probably reflected the whims of fashion more than anything else. What biologists and those interested in furbearers see here is the natural predator-prey crash at the end of a population cycle. It is an extremely complicated process which has fascinated biologists for decades. Only in the lat year or two have they been able to pin-point any causes. First the number of prey animals declines probably as a result of a lack of food, and actual starvation. So then the predators are out of food and their numbers decline too. |
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