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Fearless, adaptable, efficient predators, bobcats are solitary hunters who stalk and ambush their prey using patience, speed, and precision. Yet these stealthy felines are no match against poaching nor the high demands of the international fur trade. Although bobcat pelts have been illegally transported from Mexico into the United States, no census has been conducted to show how many Mexican bobcats have been trapped, shot, or poisoned. Nobody knows what this means for the species’ future.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Endangered
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1976
RANGE: Mexican states of Sinaloa and Nayarit, as well as portions of Sonora, Jalisco, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Nuevo León, Hidalgo, Morelos, Puebla, Tiaxcala, Tamaulipas, Michoacan, Guerrero, Veracruz, and Oaxaca
THREATS: Habitat destruction, rural development, illegal trapping and shooting, and militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border
POPULATION TREND: No population estimates are available.
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SAVING THE MEXICAN BOBCAT
The Mexican bobcat, the southernmost subspecies of bobcat, has been classified as an endangered species since 1976, but under pressure from the National Trappers Association, the Bush administration proposed its delisting — an action that would have legalized the importation of Mexican bobcat furs into the United States.
In 2003, the Center first submitted comments opposing a petition to remove protections for the Mexican bobcat, which helped to keep these wild cats on the list of threatened and endangered species. A few years later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially proposed delisting the Mexican bobcat, and we filed additional scientific comments in opposition. We have begun preparing for possible litigation, should the proposal be finalized, to ensure that the Mexican bobcat will not be legally trapped into extinction.
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Contact: Michael Robinson
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