BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM VOL. 33(4)


April 1979 to 12 August 1981 as determined by radiotracking, trailing, and
visual observations. The general locations of all presumed resident bobcats are
indicated. These include individuals radiotracked during the interval as well as
marked cats whose collars had stopped transmitting and unmarked animals
known or believed to be present on the basis of tracks or sightings.
 Configuration of home ranges varied continuously throughout the study but
 tended to be relatively more stable during the initial (April-October 1979) and
 final (March-August 1981) periods than during the interval from winter
 1979-80 to spring 1981. Although the shape and size of home ranges of
 individual resident bobcats varied over time, the cats exhibited a strong
 tendency to remain in the same general area. Two females occupied the same
 overall home range for periods of about 5.5 years (F8) and 9 years (Fl). Of
 the 13 adults monitored during the study, one exhibited a local home range
 shift and one made a long-distance movement. In the first case, an adult
 female (F3) apparently moved to an area adjacent to her original home range.
 In August 1982 she was killed on a highway about 1.5 km N of the nearest
 boundary of the home range she had occupied from June through November
 1979, when her collar failed. She continued to use the area at least through
 December, based on tracking. Sightings believed to be of this individual were
 made at the edge of her previously known range in February and August 1980.
 The male (M6) and female (F8) juveniles of this female remained in the natal
 range, and the daughter produced her first litter in May 1980. On the
 assumption that two breeding females would not occupy the same area, the old
 adult must have vacated her former range by spring 1980 or before. The
 long-distance movement involved a male (M7). He was trapped and marked in
 late April 1980 and radiotracked for 3 days following release, after which the
 transmitter failed. He was sighted 20 August 1980 and 3 June 1981 within 2 km
 of the area in which he was tracked in April 1980, indicating he was still in the
 study area after 14 months but may have shifted his home range. In July 1982,
 he was found dead on a highway 70 km from the study area. The distance
 moved by this individual exceeds values previously reported from the southeast
 (Griffith et al. 1980, Kitchings and Story 1984). Knick and Bailey (1986) noted
 that the longest documented bobcat movements (158 and 182 km) were from a
 region with a cyclic prey base and that in areas, including the southeast,
 characterized by a stable prey base movements have been < 50 km.
 Neither resident adult males nor females showed appreciable home range
overlap with adjacent bobcats of the same sex. The overlap of adjacent adult
male home ranges believed to be relatively accurately delimited averaged 5%,
with a range of 1-11%. Mean and extremes of home range overlap of adult
females were 3 and 0-17%, respectively. These values indicate that in both
males and females adults of the same sex tended to have exclusive home
ranges. Tracking of neighbors, radio fixes, and sightings suggested that, in