California Assembly Bill 1254 tasked the California Department of Fish and Wildlife with developing a statewide bobcat management plan which will include 1) a statewide bobcat population estimate, 2) an assessment of population health, 3) a comprehensive management strategy, 4) an investigation of nonlethal predation solutions, and 5) recommendations for regulatory or statutory changes. To develop the plan, we collected data at 48 study areas across California, each with a grid of 40 two-camera survey stations and 40 km of scat survey transects. Additionally, we deployed GPS collars on 45 bobcats across 12 different counties. This resulted in over 21 million photos, 3,000 scat samples, and 64,000 GPS locations. With help from Wildlife Insights, an online platform for organizing, and processing camera trap images, and the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, University of California, Davis, we identified individual bobcats based on pelage patterns and genotypes from fecal DNA. We developed separate spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models for each data source (photos and DNA) to estimate population size and used Kernel Density home range estimates and Resource Selection Probability Functions (RSPFs) to assess individual-level habitat selection. This project is unique due to its scale and its multi-faceted approach to assessing California’s bobcat population.

Kathryn Olstad is the Scientific Aid for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Bobcat Project. She has worked on the project since October 2022 assisting with field operations, data analysis, and writing the Bobcat Management Plan. Previously, she spent three years conducting Northern Spotted Owl surveys in Six Rivers and Mendocino National Forests. Her first biological job was as a Marine Scientist for NOAA conducting catch surveys in the Bering Sea. Kathryn acquired her B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from Washington State University. Her passion for wildlife was sparked by the WSU Grizzly Bear Research and Conservation Center, where she worked as a research assistant during her time in college.