Washington’s 1,012 bobcat records span 36 counties and both sides of the Cascades, from the rain-soaked forests around Olympic National Park and the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness to the dry country of Okanogan County. King County alone accounts for 285, more than a quarter of the file.
A west-side cat that crosses the mountains
The record tilts hard toward the wet side. King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Thurston counties pile up records in the greenbelt-and-forest mosaic around Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, Pacific, and Wahkiakum cover the coastal lowlands, and Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest anchor the peninsula. Yet Okanogan’s 61 records show the cat equally at home in the east, hunting shrub-steppe edges and coulee country. A bobcat needs only thick cover for ambush and a steady supply of rabbits and rodents, and Washington supplies both under rainforest canopy and sagebrush alike. Most Washingtonians who share a greenbelt with one never see it.
A winter crest in the counts
Reports build through fall to a December crest of 206, with January close behind, then sag to a July low. Part of that rise is breeding biology: courtship begins in late winter, and cats travel farther and call more as it approaches. Part is simple visibility, bare deciduous thickets and low-angle light giving a briefly glimpsed cat away. The midsummer dip means less movement at the edges of daylight, not fewer cats; bobcats hold their ranges year-round.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the bobcat S5, Secure, in Washington, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
