INDIANAPOLIS – For years, efforts to allow hunting and trapping of bobcats in Indiana have proved unsuccessful. But a bill moving through the General Assembly could soon require the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to establish a hunting season for bobcats not later than July 1, 2025.
Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville authored Senate Bill 241 and said populations of the state’s only native wild cat have “significantly increased” in southern Indiana.
The senator, who owns 150 acres in the southern part of the state, said he wants to prevent the bobcat population from growing out of hand and threatening other animals like deer, wild rabbits, dogs, and cats.
Baldwin said, “In the interest of maintaining biological and ecological homeostasis, we must determine how we do this responsibly. Who better to do that than our DNR scientists and biologists?”
The state agency contemplated a hunting and trapping season for bobcats in 2018 but withdrew the proposed rule after it drew widespread public opposition.
A similar bobcat hunting bill was filed in 2019 but never got a hearing. Baldwin’s bill has found more success, advancing 7-1 from the Senate Natural Resources Committee to the full chamber.
Once an endangered species in Indiana, bobcats were removed from the endangered species list in 2018. Since then, the bobcat population has grown, especially in recent years, according to the DNR.
Under Baldwin’s proposal, it would be up to the DNR to determine rules, season dates, what counties would be open, how many bobcats a hunter could take, and the method of killing bobcats.
A 2022 Purdue University survey of Hoosier hunters and trappers indicated some support for a bobcat hunting season, but fewer were in favor of a trapping season.
Although wildlife and environmental groups agree that bobcat numbers are on the rise, they argue that the DNR does not have specific data to support opening a season.
Erin Huang, a senior specialist for state affairs at the Humane Society of the United States, said the bobcat proposal was “wildly unpopular before,” and that it “goes against the public trust doctrine.”
Read the complete Indiana Capital Chronicle story here.
