CHANGE IN BOBCAT DISTRIBUTION AFTER LARGE MIXED SEVERITY FIRE | |||
| Alexandra C Avrin; California Department of Fish and Wildlife; alexandra.avrin@wildlife.ca.gov; Rachel Roberts, Pete Figura | |||
Large wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent in California with an average of >1,000,000 acres burned in each of the last five years. While studies have explored the impacts of fire on wildlife, they often occur years after the fire when vegetation has regrown. Bobcats may be particularly sensitive to severe wildfires as they prefer dense cover for hunting, denning, and raising young. To measure bobcat’s response immediately post-fire we re-deployed a 40km2 camera grid two months after the Park Fire burned significant portions of California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Tehama Wildlife Area in 2024, where we previously had deployed the same camera grid in 2021 (pre-fire). Deploying cameras right after the fire allowed us to measure bobcat habitat use and distribution prior to vegetation regrowth and during the next eight months as the vegetation began to regrow. We used occupancy and temporal models to compare bobcat distribution and activity pre- and post-fire, between low, medium, and high burn severities, and over time. This study fills a crucial gap in how bobcats respond to large and severe wildfires immediately after the fire and as they adapt to a changing environment as the vegetation and wildlife community recovers and potentially changes. | |||
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