(January 2021.) Happy New Year! 2020 was a challenging year for Project Wild Coshocton, as it was for everyone. COVID-19 struck near the beginning of our field season, which resulted in significant modifications to how we conducted our fieldwork. Most significantly, it curtailed the involvement of our dedicated undergraduate field assistants. But we were determined to not let the coronavirus disrupt our gathering of long-term data on bobcat occupancy patterns! Happily, we can report that 2020 appeared to be a good year for the bobcats of Coshocton and southern Holmes counties. We have now been surveying the same 26 sites for three consecutive years, and we are starting to notice a trend. In 2018, the number of those sites occupied by bobcats was 10. In 2019, that number rose to 13. And in 2020, we detected bobcats at 18 of our sites! It is uplifting to see one of our native carnivores, only a few short decades ago absent from our wild places, returning and restoring not only its ecological functions, but also its mystery and beauty to Ohio. Let us hope bobcats continue to thrive in Wild Coshocton in 2021 and beyond!
Scroll below to see a few images from the 2020 field season:
Field Assistants Christy and Brandon, helping set cameras before COVID-19 hit.
