Research overview: bobcat movement in urban and rural mosaics

Bobcats are the most widespread wild cat in North America and thrive in landscapes ranging from wilderness to suburban edges, and this overview synthesizes telemetry research on their movement through urban and rural mosaics. GPS studies reveal how bobcats navigate fragmented habitat, use natural and remnant patches, cross or avoid roads, and adjust activity to human presence, often becoming more nocturnal near development. The overview discusses how roads fragment bobcat populations genetically, how the cats use culverts and underpasses, and how urban pressures such as rodenticide exposure and disease interact with movement and survival. Because bobcats coexist closely with people, their movement ecology offers a tractable model for understanding how mid-sized carnivores persist in human-dominated landscapes. Bobcat research informs urban wildlife management and the design of connectivity in developing regions.