Lauren McGrath, South Harrison School
Gloucester County
Bobcat
There are only three land living mammals that are endangered in New Jersey, and the bobcat is one of them. The bobcat has spotted reddish fur and pointed ears. The name comes from the idea that it has a bobbed, short tail. This animal has an amazing story behind it. This animal was thought to be extinct until people started calling in and saying "You're probably not going to believe me but, I'm pretty sure I saw a bobcat." Bobcats were once common all over New Jersey.
Bobcats were thought to be extinct in the late 1970s. Then from 1977 to 1982, 24 bobcats were captured in New England and released in North Jersey. The bobcat was then listed as an endangered species in June of 1991. Since then, regular sightings of bobcats have been given from a larger area of the state.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) did a survey in 1995 and learned that bobcats were in Sussex, Warren, Morris, and Passaic counties. They even saw bobcats in Mercer, Somerset, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties, too. Basically, they saw that bobcats were living all over the state.
The work of watching bobcats continues today with the use of collars put onto the wild bobcats, with satellite transmitters. Bobcat locations can now be watched using satellites.
In conclusion, you can see that the bobcat species in New Jersey has been brought back from the brink of extinction by wildlife biologists from ENSP.
Lauren McGrath
South Harrison Twp. Elementary School
Harrison, NJ
Mr. Dunner