What is it about?
The role of predators can be ecologically complex in urbanized or densely populated habitats, like that of Connecticut, USA. Bobcats suffered severe population losses last century, and since they have started their recovery, ecosystems have been significantly modified by human presence. We sought to assess their diets in Connecticut. Not all methods of ascertaining predator diet are equally useful in all scenarios. Genetic information from scat has been used to answer these questions in the past; this study leverages the resource of roadkill instead to gain this genetic data. In the past, the New England cottontail was an important part of bobcats' diets in the region, but this native lagomorph has declined steeply in recent decades. In addition to understanding the diets of bobcats fatally impacted by anthropogenic change, discerning whether they are consuming this vulnerable species was a goal of this study. We found that these bobcats consumed a wide variety of natural prey, including semi-aquatic species thought to be uncommon in their diets. They supported themselves mainly on the ubiquitous staples of cottontails and squirrels, along with twelve other prey species. However, no New England cottontails were detected in their diets.
Featured Image
Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Since bobcat populations began their recovery, ecosystems in the northeastern USA have been considerably modified by human presence and urbanization. Understanding their predation patterns in this context is important from a management perspective, including as it pertains to vulnerable species like the declining New England cottontail. The frequency of different prey species in a generalist predator's diet may provide clues about the ecosystem more generally; some -- for example Nørgaard et al. (2021) -- have referred to generalist predator diets as "biodiversity capsules". Additionally, this study is methodologically novel in that it surveyed genetic information specifically from the stomach contents of roadkill, which is an underutilized resource for ecological data.
Perspectives
I was intrigued to see how diverse the diets of bobcats are even in an area like Connecticut. Their diets were of similar diversity to bobcats in West Virginia (Simpson's index of 0.82, to WV's 0.87, per Landry et al. 2022), despite Connecticut having roughly ten times the human population density. Their populations are still rebounding from near-extirpation last century, so I'm pleased that these bobcats seem to be adapting to a disturbed landscape so well. I also think the fact that this study showed the highest ever frequency of cottontails and squirrels in bobcats' diets (>80% frequency of occurrence for both) invites interesting methodological questions. Are these bobcats really consuming that many more of these species than other studies have shown, or is our method increasing their detection?
Kim Hughes
Fordham University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: DNA metabarcoding on roadkill stomach contents reveals the breadth of species present in bobcat diets, PLOS One, March 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0344976.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
