FINE SCALE HABITAT USE BY BOBCAT ON A COASTAL BARRIER ISLAND USING GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM TRACKING COLLARS
New Interactive Bobcat Tracking Website Now Available!
In January 2007, the Kiawah Conservancy and the Town of Kiawah Island embarked on a new pilot study focusing on the Island’s bobcat population. The project employs GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking collars to examine fine-scale habitat use by bobcats on Kiawah Island.
Through the use of GPS technology, each collar has logged hundreds of locations. During this pilot project, four bobcats were collared (3 males and 1 female). Two collars collected a location via GPS every ten minutes and the other two collected information every twenty minutes (as well as additional accuracy data that will be used to conduct statistical analyses of the project). Each collar collected data for about a month.
As the results of the study are compiled, the Conservancy will be able learn more about how bobcats move around the Island and perhaps the types of habitats they prefer. This valuable information will be used to enhance land preservation planning on Kiawah. The results from this study will also be used to plan for the full-scale bobcat GPS project that will begin in late 2007.
