The bobcat cubbing season is over. But the juveniles will be around
for another several months, doing their part to sustain watershed health.
When the cubs reach 8 to 11 months of age, the mother will
evict them from her territory. The medium-size feline is distinguishable by its
short bobbed tail. The Peninsula Watershed with its expanse of diverse vegetation
is ideal habitat for these
predators, which are big enough to take down small
deer but still agile enough to grab darting rabbits and other small animals.
Since they’re so high on the food chain, bobcats sustain a
robust habitat by keeping the ecosystem balanced. They weed out species lower
on the food chain, which otherwise would increase and overrun the food resource. Then, while some starve, the
rest of the population weakens and the gene pool declines.
It’s an effect that keeps trickling down to lower species, and
eventually the plant communities as they get overgrazed. And that deprives critical lower forms, like earthworms--the recyclers. They're the ones that decompose dead leaves and other organic matter
into smaller pieces, enabling stored nutrients
to be released back into the soil. The renewed soil
replenishes the plant life, and the recharge works its way back--to the bobcats and on up.
