how after capturing and microchipping the bobcats, they used radio collars and tracked them with antennas. With the advent of GPS collars used today, not only is such tracking easier and more efficient, but it also provides significantly more data. Using radio collars was labor intensive, requiring many hours of triangulating and plotting data. Much time was spent creeping under villas and searching through scrubshrub and marsh thicket for bobcats. Shane was surprised to learn that in the spring of 2016, Island officials recovered a 13-year-old deceased bobcat that he had captured and tagged! Thirteen is an unusually old age, definitely a senior citizen for bobcats.
Shane said they learned a wealth of information as a result
of bobcat research:
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Bobcats are the primary reason the deer population is stable on Kiawah.
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On Kiawah, each bobcat needs three to five acres of contiguous habitat for denning, a much smaller range than most bobcats who live off Island.
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Native, undeveloped habitat areas facilitate bobcat survival.
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Marsh edge, shrub-scrub, and even backyard understory are important for bobcats.
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There were always bobcat dens on Captain Sams Spit and near the undeveloped Ocean Course. The undeveloped portions and marsh edges around Mingo Point also offered valuable habitat.
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During the day, bobcats often spend time in undeveloped woodlots.
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At night, bobcats are on the prowl, exploring their range and hunting for food, often walking in a big rectangular path.
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Although the bobcats’ favorite food is rabbit, they eat the cotton rats that are abundant on Kiawah and deer fawns. In fact, bobcats are responsible for about 55 percent of Kiawah’ s fawn mortalities.
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Although most bobcats live two to four years in the wild, Kiawah bobcats often live six to seven years.
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Most of the Island’ s bobcat fatalities are due to car accidents.
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Bobcats are territorial and generally stay in their own range. Discover more about bobcat tracking including a map of their travels at www. wildlifeatkiawah. com / 2016bobcats. html.
far as bobcats go, and would often sit and watch Shane and others as they were loading items into and out of their trucks. Sometimes he even came up on the porch and peeked in the windows. One day Shane was called to the old Kiawah Inn where 933 was dining on koi from the Inn’ s koi pond. Dozens of people were standing around watching 933 enjoy his feast and then meander back out to the scrubby brush. 933 was not afraid of an audience. After 933 was killed in a car accident in 2005, he was mounted and placed in Town Hall, a fitting home for the infamous king of the western end of the Island.
Shane completed his PhD and then taught at UGA before returning to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. He continues to enjoy designing and conducting research projects. When asked what advice he might have for the residents of Kiawah, he stressed how important it was to save understory and native habitat for our wildlife. Presently everything is in balance. Bobcats are controlling the deer and the rodents. Bobcats serve as an umbrella species. As long as they remain healthy, other wildlife should stay in balance. Once this balance is disrupted, it is extremely difficult to reestablish it.
Other nearby islands have resorted to culling their deer as the population grows too large. With careful planning and preservation of essential habitats, nature is handling this task on Kiawah. When property owners keep part of their land in a native state, it allows bobcat and other wildlife shelter, food, and a path to travel. The Conservancy will continue to seek properties that offer optimal habitat. Shane said that one day he and his family would like to visit Kiawah. We hope that when he does, he will still recognize the iconic wildlife that he left behind and helped preserve. NK
During our interview, Shane reminisced about Kiawah Island, recalling that he had a favorite bobcat, Bobcat 933, an adult male. Although most bobcats venture out to hunt during the dark of night, 933 was often spotted near the parking lot around Town Hall in the heart of his territory at the western end of the Island. 933 was unusually social as
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