BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM VOL. 33(4)


radio fixes. Tracks at the site the next morning also indicated they had been
together. M3 was found dead on 16 January and had a FPLV infection based
on laboratory diagnosis. Radio locations indicated that F4 and adult male M1
had associated together between midnight 31 January and 0200 on 1 February.
The following night M1 was in the vicinity of, if not in actual contact with, F6,
one of three juveniles of Fl, whose home range was contained within his. As
these young were still closely associated, the other two juveniles (M4, F5)
probably were also in the area, but their radio-collars were not functioning.
Both Ml and F6 apparently died on or about 5 February. F6's carcass,
recovered in the area where she and M1 had been located 4 days before, was
too decomposed for necropsy. No sightings or tracks believed to be of her
litter mates were recorded after this date, suggesting that they also died from
the disease.
 During the period of apparent contact between M1 and one or more of Fl's
 young, F1 was in another part of her range and did not return to the site until
 after the male had left the area. Over the next two weeks, she spent an
 unusual amount of time in that area and in another remote portion of her
 range with canals and a pond containing water. C. E. Winegarner (pers.
 comm.) also reported that she stayed away from the cottage where she was
 occasionally fed for 18 days from late-January to mid-February, her longest
 period of absence on record. Her apparent attraction to water and prolonged
 absence from the cottage area suggest that she may have had a sublethal FPLV
 infection (Bittle 1970), which she could have acquired either from M1 or her
 young. F4 may also have had a sublethal infection during the winter-early
 spring period. This could have contributed to her effectiveness in transmitting
 the disease to other bobcats, as Bittle (1970) stated that an animal recovering
 from an infection could remain a carrier for a long period. F4's behavior
 during this period was abnormal. Following the death of M2, her movements
 became more restricted, and she was observed on three occasions (once near
 water for about an hour) in February and March 1980 walking slowly or lying
 down in the open and could be easily approached to within a few meters.
 The two remaining bobcats (juvenile male M5, adult female F10) believed
to have died of FPLV in late February occupied home ranges adjacent to F4's
and thus could have been infected by her. M5 and F4 were recorded visiting
the same sites along their common range boundaries during this period.
 Only 1 of the 17 bobcats live-trapped in this study showed signs of current
or past injury. This was the semi-tame female (Fl). A small cloudy area in the
lower portion of the left cornea with a tiny wound in the center was noted
during laboratory examination of the animal in October 1980. On occasions
when she was observed at close range in the field during the previous 2 weeks,
the eye was watering profusely and was kept closed almost continuously. The
eye appeared normal when she was seen 2 weeks later (C. E. Winegarner, pers.
comm.). In October 1982 she was observed limping badly, a forefoot dangling