5 pictures showing where bobcats make their dens

Here are five photographs showing the kind of places where bobcats make a den. Not long before birth the female picks out a well-hidden place to give birth. These places are very variable and include: rock piles, caves, brush piles, and hollow trees. The latter seems to be a favorite in these photographs. Bobcats sleep in these sorts of places too.

Kittens in dens can be vulnerable to being killed based on the knowledge that females with small cubs tend to regularly change den sites. In one study, it was found that during the first month or two after birth female bobcats at Archbold Biological Station in south-central Florida moved their kittens to a new den every 1 to 6 days but they travelled quite short distances to do this.

When the kittens were between 2 to 4 months old females changed den sites at the same sort of rate but because the cubs were mobile, they dispersed further within the female’s territory (their range or home range). When travelling between den sites the mother leads and the kittens follow in single file.

Adult female bobcats have quite small ranges that overlap very little with those of neighbouring females (source: I have quoted Mel and Fiona Sunquist verbatim from their book Wildcats of the World.

The typical habitat of the bobcat includes good populations of rodents and rabbits as prey animals and dense cover including shelters “that function as escape cover or as den sites” (source: as above).

Bobcats prefer habitat with dense cover or uneven, broken terrain although they are considered to be “generalists” when it comes to habitat type which is why they are found in a wide variety of landscapes including boreal coniferous forest, swamps, mixed hardwood forest, chaparral, sagebrush grassland and desert scrub. These habitats provide opportunities for good dens and safe places to sleep.

Bobcat families in a hollow tree.

HERE ARE SOME MORE PAGES ON THE BOBCAT: