Nebraska’s 736 bobcat records pile up at one end of the state. Scotts Bluff and Banner counties in the panhandle hold the overwhelming majority of them, anchored on the pine-and-cedar escarpment of the Wildcat Hills. East of that, records thin out across a farmed prairie where cover is something a cat has to seek out.
Rimrock and cedar draws in a grassland state
A bobcat in Nebraska is an animal of edges and interruptions: wooded river bluffs, cedar-choked draws, rocky breaks, and brushy canyon country set inside open grass. Cedar Canyon and Oak Glen wildlife management areas and the Oglala National Grassland hold that kind of ground in the panhandle, while Indian Cave and Ponca state parks protect the steep, timbered Missouri River bluffs that serve the same purpose in the east. Wherever rabbits and rodents concentrate near dense cover, the record suggests, a bobcat can make a living.
Movement that peaks with the breeding season
Reports climb through December and crest in February, the heart of the breeding season, when males travel far beyond their usual circuits and fresh tracks in snow or mud advertise an animal that stays out of sight the rest of the year. Bobcats are resident all year in Nebraska, and the flat stretch of records from April through August reflects cats keeping close to cover, not cats that have gone anywhere. A direct sighting remains a rare event in any month.
Status in Nebraska
NatureServe ranks the bobcat S5, Secure, in Nebraska, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
