Went to hear a biologist this evening re an ongoing study on blacktail deer and cougars. The deer study is in its 5th year and the cougar into its second year. I wish I'd gone prepared to take notes but didn't so this is from memory. Among predators, cougars had the most kills of blacktail deer, black bears the second and bobcats were third. Most of the bear kills apparently were fawns under 7 weeks old.

The biologist said that they started out to study cougar kills of deer but ran into so many bobcats and bobcat kills that they had to expand their study to include bobcats. Over the four years for which they have compiled deer mortality, my rough average of their data showed that bobcats killed about 1/3 as many deer as cougars did.

In the highest bobcat kill year, bobcats killed as many deer as cougars. In the low year, they killed 20% as many.

They had at least 27 cougars and 160 bobcats in the area studied, so the deer kills per bobcat are much lower, but total kills make bobcats a major predator on blacktail deer, in that area.

What area?

Washington State, right along the north coast near salt water.

Not at all surprised after reading about the amount of whitetails killed by bobcats , amazing that a 25lb. bobcat can wear down and finish kill a grown deer . Wish I could remember where the study I read was conducted - interesting stuff Okanagan .

Wild cats are tough hombres.

I recently read a Lion study from British Columbia. They collared a number of Lions, but the one that stood out to me was a 180lb tom that only killed elk and moose!

So, 27 cougars in that area. The accepted number of deer-killed-per-lion-per-week is one.

That works out to about 1,400 deer killed by lions, per year, in that area.

Here in Colorado, our fish cops estimate between 3,000 and 7,000 lions roam the State. At the 7,000 Lion figure, that means about 364,000 deer are killed, just by lions, each year. The current deer population estimate is 420,000+/-.

I find it amazing that coyotes didn't even make the list...

Must be almost zero coyotes in the area of study?

I find it amazing that coyotes didn't even make the list...

Must be almost zero coyotes in the area of study?

What about woofs?
Or do they still pretend they don't exist.

It would be interesting to see total kill from ALL predators, including dogs.

No wolves in that area though they want to bring some in. Zero wolf kills.

All deer mortality causes were on the pie charts including hunting. 15% and more some years were unknown cause of death. There are not many roads and they did not break out either dogs nor vehicle killed deer, but my guess is that both are very low in that study area compared to a lot of other places with more houses/farms and more high speed roads.

Lonny, the biologist said that they see more bobcats than coyotes and that they have been surprised at how few coyotes show up on their trail cameras. We knew that coyote numbers are low compared to places like eastern Washington, but I would not have guessed bobcats outnumber coyotes anywhere.

Bobcats typically kill small game and birds don't they? I know around here we have almost zero rabbits and some squirrels but a bobcat would be hard pressed to make a living surviving on small game here. I suspect a lot of places are the same way.

Interesting! And neither would have I guessed bobcats would outnumber coyotes anywhere they share the same range.

As a side note, my Dad grew up when coyotes were crazy thick (1940's) in these parts. He said deer, small game, bobcats, skunks, raccoons were few and far between when coyotes were really thick.

The government put out compound 1080 baits scattered all over the area for quite a number of years and the coyote population dropped off drastically. Within a few years after the poisoning started, bobcats and all the above mentioned critters that were few, suddenly exploded in numbers. He killed quite a few bobcats just by incidental shooting and seeing bobcats became common.

I lived in Western WA for a dozen years, and saw some crazy coyote cycles when I was there. I believe the boom in the Cougar population has severely impacted the coyote populations, all the way to the coast. Bobcats don’t seem nearly as effected by Cougar populations as coyotes, as they seem to kind of avoid each other.

I know back in the late 90’s, there were coyotes all over the place in Whatcom and Skagit counties.... we shot 100+ a year for several consecutive years up that way. But, the rapidly declining number of small dairy farms, coupled with berry field expansion and a boom in rural home building.... caused a pretty big drop in coyote numbers.

10 years or so ago, the coastal cougar population exploded in NW Washington. There used to be large herds of blacktail deer down on the coastal plain. The combination of woodlots and open fields made for eastern Whitetail like conditions. The cougars proceeded to clean house on those coastal deer... and the population is now maybe 20% of what it was. During that time, coyote populations also dropped. The cycle seems to be coming back around though, as coyotes seem to be rebounding.... though the deer are still in a recession.