Trapping plan for Indiana bobcats, once listed as endangered, moving forward for 2025

The state's natural resource managers will hold a public hearing Thursday in southern Indiana on the upcoming bobcat trapping set to start next year despite concerns from many Hoosiers.

The Natural Resources Commission will meet Thursday in Butlerville to discuss rules for the proposed new season and hear from Hoosiers about the plans to allow bobcat trapping next year.

Advocates for the trapping season say bobcats need to be controlled so they don’t kill pets and livestock. Senator Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville, who brought forward the legislation earlier this year that established a bobcat trapping season, said in January the growing population of the state's only wild cat is a detriment to smaller wildlife species. Baldwin did not immediately respond to IndyStar for this article.

Following the passing of the legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana’s DNR has proposed opening bobcat trapping to 40 counties in the southern portion of the state and set a statewide harvest cap at 250 cats.

The proposed season rules would allow licensed Hoosier trappers to take one bobcat per season and sell the hide.

If the Natural Resources Commission approves the proposed rules, the new season will begin in the fall of 2025.

Lack of study worries advocates

Samantha Chapman, Indiana state director for the Humane Society of the United States, is rallying support against the bobcat season.

“We’ve said from the very beginning that we just don’t know how many bobcats are in the state,” Chapman said. “It’s really important to have that information before determining a quota.”

The state used a population model developed by Purdue University “that incorporates the basic aspects of bobcat life history and simulates bobcat population dynamics in Indiana,” DNR spokesperson Marty Benson wrote in an email to IndyStar.

“We are progressing with the rule following statutory requirements,” Benson wrote. “No separate study is required by the NRC or statute.”

Indiana also relies on bobcat reports Hoosier hunters send through the yearly Archer’s Index. This volunteer reporting relies on bow hunters reporting how long they spent hunting and what wildlife they saw in the field.

Chapman said she believes an increase in bobcat sightings across Indiana can be chalked up to the growing number of cameras set up along game trails.

Bobcats, once nearly gone from the state, have been recovering since first placed on Indiana's endangered species list in 1969. The state removed them from the list in 2005 after reported roadkill and other mortalities increased in the early 2000s, according to a former furbearer biologist for DNR.

Indiana has about 4,000 Hoosiers holding trapping licenses, and state officials estimate half of them would apply for a bobcat permit.

A state analysis of the proposed rules says a bobcat season would provide furbearers with more pelts to sell, allow taxidermists to take on more work and give trapping equipment vendors additional revenue. Bobcat pelts typically sell for around $100, according to the analysis.

While trappers have been supportive of the rule, Chapman said Hoosiers largely disagree.

“This is different than hunting a deer,” Chapman said. “You’re really leaving an animal stuck and suffering in a really uncomfortable position for up to a day which is incredibly inhumane. Then it is just being sold, usually in foreign markets outside of the state of Indiana.”

Hoosiers can speak at the public hearing

The Natural Resources Commission is holding its public meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Purdue Southeast Agricultural Center in Butlerville.

Hoosiers can attend the meeting in person to provide comments, or join the meeting online at in.gov/nrc/rules/rulemaking-docket.

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.