BULLETIN FLORIDA STATE MUSEUM VOL. 33(4)


daylight hours when it was warmer. Bailey (1972) stated that bobcats in Idaho
were inactive under conditions of extreme winter weather and that the use of
caves was important in water conservation during hot-dry summer months.
 Seasonal differences in activity patterns of adult females in south-central
 Florida appeared to be linked more to the needs of their offspring than to
 weather conditions. Females with recently born young spent much time with
 the young, resulting in a decrease in activity in late-night and early-morning
 hours during the first month following birth of litters in spring. In summer,
 when young were past the nursing age, females tended to be more active
 during daylight hours than were males. This difference in activity levels may
 reflect more intense hunting effort required by the increased nutritional needs
 of the family unit. The changes in adult female activity pattern correlated with
 age of the young were clearly illustrated by the data for Fl, whose activity was
 closely monitored from the birth of one of her litters in spring, until summer
 when the young were 5 months old (Fig. 12). Even though she was
 occasionally fed, this female usually became very thin when her kittens were 3-
 7 months of age, supporting the suggestion that energy demands of older young
 may force females to hunt more during the day. Hall (1973) also reported
 higher levels of activity for females than for males during daylight hours of
 summer months.


 Habitat Use


 Home ranges of all bobcats except two adult females (F10, Fll) included
 each of the eight habitat types recognized (Table 6). Closed canopy xeric
 pine-oak habitat was not present in the ranges of F10 and Fll, and one of them
 (Fll) also had no man-occupied areas within her range. Xeric pine-oak
 association was the best represented natural habitat in bobcat home ranges.
 The average proportion of the closed canopy phase contained within individual
 ranges was double its relative abundance on the study area as a whole.
 Although most habitats were found in all home ranges, their proportions in
 different ranges were highly variable. In general, the relative amounts of a
 given habitat contained in home ranges varied less among adult males than
 among adult females. Adult male ranges also tended to contain more
 man-modified habitats than did the ranges of adult females, although the
 difference was not significant (U57 = 8,p > 0.05, 2-tailed).
 Most bobcats did not use habitats in their ranges in direct proportion to
their availability (Table 7). There were no consistent trends in intensity of use
of particular habitats. However, there was an overall tendency for relatively
more use of natural than man-modified habitats. Although adult males had
relatively less natural habitat area within their home ranges than did females,