AUTHORS: Katherine M. Buckman, Ellen M. Audia, Brent S. Pease, Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau, and Clayton K. Nielsen
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
ABSTRACT: Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are a focal species for carnivore management and research. Although bobcat survival has been studied extensively throughout much of their North-American range, it can be difficult to identify the broader conclusions of such studies based on study-specific factors, such as sample size, harvest status, and study length. We conducted a meta-analysis to estimate mean bobcat survival across the U.S. to document trends, identify knowledge gaps, and inform future study designs. We identified 18 studies across 15 U.S. states conducted during 1985–2023 that reported a single estimate of annual bobcat survival (i.e., effect size) and a corresponding variance (i.e., weight). We assigned an “exploitation level” to each study based on whether the study area and/or adjacent lands were open to bobcat harvest (i.e., zero = no harvest permitted within or outside the study area; indirect = no harvest permitted within the study area but permitted outside the study area; direct = harvest permitted within and outside the study area). Bobcat survival estimates ranged from 0.19–0.93, with a mean annual survival of 0.75 (95% CI = 0.69–0.81). Heterogeneity in reported survival rates was not significantly different across years (Q = 3.29, P = 0.06), however survival rates appeared to increase slightly between 1985–2000 and reported estimates after 2001 were >0.68 (n = 9 studies). The mean number of days monitoring individual survival (range = 188–870 days, n = 12 studies), and the relative exploitation level accounted for 99.98% of heterogeneity in survival rates across studies (Q = 27.13, P
