Scat transects, conducted using both human observers (Morin et al., 2018 Ruell et al., 2009) and detection dogs (Harrison, 2006 Long et al., 2007), have also been successfully applied to the estimation of bobcat abundance or occupancy. Additionally, it is not possible to accurately identify individual animals by spot patterns across much of the bobcat's range, particularly in West Virginia, and other surrounding northeastern states (Croteau et al., 2012 Morin et al., 2018 Young, 1958). Camera trap costs have declined significantly since the first study that used cameras to identify bobcat individuals based on fur spot patterns in 2003 (Heilbrun et al., 2003) in Texas, USA however, using cameras to survey large areas still requires a sizable investment of resources. Camera traps have been successfully used to document bobcat presence and estimate abundance in several studies, but only when the unique spot patterns of individuals can be identified (Clare et al., 2015 Comer et al., 2011 Heilbrun et al., 2006 Larrucea et al., 2007 Symmank et al., 2008 Thornton & Pekins, 2015). Since bobcats are an elusive carnivore species, the collection of these data can be a difficult task.Ĭamera traps, scat transects, and hair snares are non‐invasive methods commonly used to collect bobcat demographic information. To maintain compliance with CITES, any state that allows hunting or trapping of bobcats, like West Virginia (USA), is required to demonstrate the sustainability of these activities, which may or may not require detailed demographic information. Bobcats are not provided any protections under United States federal law, but their harvests are governed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) under Appendix II, due to their similarity to the endangered Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus United States Fish & Wildlife Service, 1982). However, only about 50% of the responding state wildlife agencies reported an estimated population size or density estimate for their bobcat populations. According to a survey of state wildlife agencies conducted by Roberts and Crimmins ( 2010), bobcat abundance across the United States has increased dramatically since the 1980s. In some states, bobcats are currently hunted and trapped for their valuable fur however, in others, they are considered a protected species due to either unknown or low overall abundance, or lack of public acceptance of any type of harvest. The bobcat ( Lynx rufus) is a moderately sized felid with established populations across the contiguous United States, except for the state of Delaware, making it one of the most widely distributed carnivores in North America (Roberts & Crimmins, 2010). While the overall number of recaptured animals was low ( n = 9), continued development of this platform should increase its usefulness in capture–recapture studies. Over the two years of the study, a total of 378 bobcat detections were recorded from 42,000 trap nights of sampling, for an overall rate of 0.9 detections/100 trap nights-nearly 2–6 times greater than any previous bobcat hair snare study. Collected hair samples were analyzed with newly developed mitochondrial DNA primers specifically for felids and qPCR to determine species of origin, with enough sensitivity to identify samples as small as two bobcat hairs. This new hair snare was deployed in 1500 10‐km 2 cells across West Virginia (USA) between two sampling seasons (2015–2016). The goal of our study was to construct a novel, passive bobcat hair snare that could be deployed regardless of terrain or vegetation features, which would be effective for use in capture–recapture population estimation at a large spatial scale. Due to the limited success of previous bobcat studies using hair snares which required active rubbing, this technique has largely fallen out of use, in favor of camera trapping. While these tools have been used to answer important research questions, these techniques often fail to gather information on elusive carnivores, such as bobcats ( Lynx rufus). Over the past 20 years, the use of non‐invasive hair snare surveys in wildlife research and management has become more prevalent.
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