Research overview: roads, development and genetic structure of urban bobcats

Urban infrastructure shapes the genetics of bobcat populations by impeding movement and gene flow across roads and developed corridors. This overview synthesises landscape-genetics studies, several from southern California, showing how freeways and dense development create genetic discontinuities even in a mobile mesopredator, sometimes within a few kilometres. It examines how disease outbreaks can transiently reshape genetic structure, how occasional crossings maintain partial connectivity, and how these patterns inform corridor and crossing planning. The synthesis links bobcat population genetics to the broader question of how cities fragment wildlife, using a relatively abundant felid as a sensitive indicator of connectivity.