Minnesota’s 251 bobcat records hug the northern forest. St. Louis and Lake counties lead with 51 apiece, pointing toward the Boundary Waters, while Hubbard, Beltrami, and Itasca counties carry the record west through Chippewa National Forest to Itasca State Park.
The snowy fringe of bobcat country
Minnesota is near the top of the bobcat’s range, and the record shows it. The cat shares this country with the Canada lynx, but where the lynx floats over deep snow on huge, furred feet, the bobcat’s smaller paws sink, so it favors lower ridges, south-facing slopes, and the conifer lowlands where deer yard up in winter. Records from Superior National Forest and the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness sit in exactly that terrain. Snowshoe hare, rabbits, and rodents make up most of its prey, supplemented by deer fawns in summer and carrion in hard winters. Across the farm country of the south and west, records grow sparse. Even in its best Minnesota habitat the cat works mainly at night, and most people never see one.
A record written in winter
Reports crest from December through February, with January the tallest month. That is breeding season, when males travel far beyond their usual ranges, and it is also when fresh snow writes down every crossing in round four-toed tracks that lack claw marks. For a cat this secretive, winter is when its presence becomes legible.
Status in Minnesota
NatureServe lists the bobcat SNR, Unranked, for Minnesota, while ranking the species G5, Secure, globally. The cat is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
