Curious Iowa: Are bobcat and coyote numbers increasing in Iowa?

Iowa’s wildlife population typically fluctuates each year, depending on a variety of factors.

But are the populations of furbearer species specifically — which include coyotes, foxes, bears, beavers, raccoons, minks and bobcats — increasing in the state?

That’s what one person asked The Gazette’s Curious Iowa — a series that answers readers’ questions about our state and how it works.

Furbearer populations

Vince Evelsizer, a furbearers and wetlands biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said European settlers wiped out large carnivores, like mountain lions, in the Midwest centuries ago. That left mesocarnivores — middle-sized carnivores like bobcats, foxes and lynx — to prosper since.

Evelsizer said some furbearer populations have been increasing in Iowa, but in different, nuanced ways.

Iowa’s population of bobcats, for example, has been increasing by about 7 percent each year since 2007.

“It's notable that they have been in expansion mode now, pretty much the last 20 years,” Evelsizer said. “It's a wildlife success story.”

Bobcats’ expansion in Iowa is partly a result of it having been listed as an endangered species in 1977 because the population was dwindling due to habitat loss.

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In 2001, as population started to bounce back, officials changed the status of Iowa bobcats — which are typically quiet and secretive by nature — to a threatened species. In 2003, they were relisted as a protected species.

“During that time, they slowly started to build,” Evelsizer said.

By 2007, bobcat populations improved to the point that Iowa officials saw fit to designate a limited bobcat hunting season.

Iowans can hunt and trap bobcats in the state, but the number of bobcats a hunter can bag varies from county to county.

Evelsizer said the Iowa bobcat population got help rebounding because bobcats from Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri moved into Iowa. The DNR knows this because of genetic testing it’s done.

Evelsizer said there also has been a slight uptick in urban coyotes over the last five to 10 years.

He said coyote populations are stable in some parts of the state, but in other regions of Iowa they have slightly increased.

“It's really quite variable with coyotes, and so it's stable to slightly increasing with coyotes in general,” Evelsizer said.

Evelsizer said there are not as many bobcats as there are coyotes, but with bobcats being in “expansion mode,” their growth rate is higher than the coyotes.

Bobcats “are kind of like the new kid coming on,” he said.

Bears, another furbearer species, has been seen more frequently in Iowa in recent years. There were three to four black bears found living in the northeast corner of the state in early May, after overwintering in Iowa.

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Black bears typically aren’t found in Iowa — rather in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Missouri — but that could change, as the DNR has seen an uptick in black bears visiting Iowa.

“We have yet to see cubs or black bear reproduction in Iowa,” Evelsizer said. “They took another small step forward in the odds of us seeing cubs pretty soon, but yet, they’re certainly not behind every tree at this time.”

However, he said the state is getting enough black bears that the DNR is beginning to provide outreach to Iowans about how to live with bears.

How Iowans should — and shouldn’t — interact with furbearers

When a person spots a furbearer species out in the wild or in an urban area, Evelsizer said it is important to give them space and to use common sense.

Typically, with bobcats, Evelsizer said they are rarely a threat to humans.

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“A lot of time folks can kind of enjoy that bobcat sighting,” he said. “A lot of times they are really not hurting anything.”

With coyotes, he said it is a “whole other story.”

“With coyotes, it's somewhat complex and there can be safety issues with coyotes,” Evelsizer said, adding that they can be a threat to pets, particularly small dogs.

Some communities, he said, have been developing coyote management plans, citing Urbandale and the greater Des Moines area as examples.

“People just need to keep a distance from coyotes. Rather than letting the coyotes scare humans, humans should try to scare off coyotes, and so we call it hazing,” he said.

He said that people should “feel free to yell at them and throw stuff at them so the coyote respects their space and doesn't become conditioned that they're ruling the roost in that area.”

He added that Iowans should only report coyote and bobcat sightings to the DNR and local officials when they have concerns about the animal.

“When it comes to wildlife and wildlife management, both predators and prey have value out there on the landscape,” Evelsizer said.

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Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com