INDIANAPOLIS — The state of Indiana's first bobcat hunting season may be limited to 40 counties and come with a statewide quota of 250 bobcats.
That is according to the first proposal released by the Indiana Natural Resources Commission, who are required by law to set the parameters for a bobcat hunting season before July 2025.
In March, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the contentious bobcat hunting bill into law which forces the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to implement a hunting season for the state's only native cat by July 1, 2025.
Bobcats were once protected in Indiana until being removed from the state's endangered species list in 2005.
Despite DNR having the authority to launch a hunting season without the passage of state legislation, State Sen. Scott Baldwin, R-District 20 — himself an avid hunter — pushed ahead with the bill feeling that the department needed a "nudge."
While the bill requires a hunting/trapping season for bobcats to be implemented in the state by July 1, the specifics of the hunting season were left for DNR to determine.
Now, the Indiana Natural Resources Commission has presented its first proposal that will allow for limited, regulated trapping of bobcats.
Under this proposal, a trapping season will be implemented in 40 counties in southern Indiana. A bag limit will be set at one bobcat per trapper with a season total quota of 250 bobcats.
The proposal allows bobcats and their parts to be legally acquired to be sold while also allowing bobcats that are found dead to be kept as part of DNR's roadkill permit system. Under the roadkill permit system, a dead bobcat could be salvaged for personal use only — not sold, bartered or traded — and do not count toward the 250 bobcat quota.
While DNR presented no population data for bobcats during the hunting season debates earlier this year — which was one of the main points of pushback by critics and conservationists — the natural resource department now claims that "research indicates that the bobcat population can withstand a regulated harvest in these (40 southern) counties."
A map included on DNR's website shows this data which allegedly confirms a healthy southern population of bobcats. However, much of the data appears to be sourced from 2020 and prior — which is around the same timeframe that DNR told IndyStar, in 2019, that it did not “have the scientific data to support a sustainable bobcat season." This quote was given after DNR backed down from a 2018 attempt to implement a bobcat hunting season.
The NRC is asking for Hoosiers to weigh in on these proposed rules. Public comments can be submitted online with public hearings planned to be held both in-person and virtually. To sign up for updates about these public hearings, click here.