Mar 29 2008
Outdoor News Digest: Wildlife Edition
The Greenville Daily News reports that a driver hit a bobcat on M-66 in Montcalm County. Bobcats are secretive, but not particularly rare:
Many saw a bobcat lying injured on the highway near the Dollar Days and Twin Ponds stores on Stanton’s south side Friday morning The cat’s rear legs had been hurt when it was struck by a vehicle. Deputies from the Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office in Stanton helped direct traffic while the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was called in to handle the bobcat. “Once we arrived we kept people away from the animal,” said DNR Conservation Officer Vicki Goss. “It is not wise to get too close to a bobcat. They can be dangerous with their claws and teeth. “It had been hit by a car but it didn’t look like it was too injured,” she said. “It didn’t seem like it was real injured. There no visible injuries.”
Goss said bobcats are common around Montcalm County, especially right now. “It is breeding season for bobcats. They are not that uncommon around here,” she said. “They are very well protected in this area. There is no hunting season for bobcats.”
Steve Pollick of the Toledo Blade has a great column about increasing area populations of red-tailed hawks:
Too, this year, “the weather has kind of hung stuff up,” said Shieldcastle, who is wetlands project leader at Ohio’s Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station in Ottawa County. Many migrating redtails, among others, have tended to stack up in the region awaiting fairer weather to the north.
Kim Kaufman, BSBO’s education director, added a third contributing possibility. It may just be a good year for rodents. Lots of field mice mean lots of redtails with appetites concentrated where these meadow voles are skittering.
Eric Sharp’s recent Detroit Free Press column about cougars brought him a flurry of letters claiming sightings. Read the column here: