Photo-trapping bobcats in California

During period 1997-98 I have been surveying and estimate natural densities of bobcats Lynx rufus in northern California, as a postdoc in affiliation with UC Berkeley, under supervision of Prof Reginald Barret and Dr Mike Jaeger.

At the beginning the plan was to carry the same study on Coyote, but a specific feature of bobcats drew my attention: the potential to recognize individuals from photos using the variability of their pelage. The same as it had been done on tigers in India by Karant...

By studying several tens of bobcat pictures I have prepared a standardized procedure aimed at recognizing individuals from pictures: the most variable parts of the pelage resulted to be the general pattern of the whole body, and the specific patterns on the muzzle, on the tail, on the shoulder and on inner leg.

This exciting study resulted in the following publication:

Larrucea E.S., Serra G., Jaeger M.M., Barrett R.H. 2007. Censusing bobcats using remote cameras. Western North American Naturalist 67(4): 538-548.

all pictures copyrighted @ g. serra