Bobcats

There are some odd assertions in this Associated Press story about a family of bobcats in Bethlehem, Connecticut (e.g., the bobcat population in Connecticut is rising because they are reproducing more, which seems to me to be the basic way bobcats or anything else would increase in population), but it's interesting nonetheless.

"The number of sightings has grown from 28 in 1993 to 187 in 2004," the story says, although it's not clear where this information came from. Reports to the state DEP? If there were 187 reported sightings, there must have been three times that number or more not reported.

All of which is a good thing. Bobcats generally need large areas of relatively undisturbed habitat, and if Connecticut can provide that, so much the better.