Wildlife

Colorado rejects ban on trapping and trophy hunting of bobcats

Grappling with the increased killing of bobcats for fur pelts to supply coat-makers in Asia, Colorado wildlife commissioners on Thursday rejected a citizen petition to outlaw the trapping and trophy hunting of the animals in the state. The commissioners said science drove their decision — namely a lack of evidence that harvesting bobcats at current levels is harmful to the species.

Scores of residents testified on either side of the proposed ban during a Colorado Parks and Wildlife hearing held in Grand Junction, the latest clash as the West’s booming urban population challenges entrenched values around relations with wildlife.

Trappers told the commissioners how they used money from sold bobcat pelts to support their families and attend college.

Licensed hunters and trappers in Colorado killed 1,978 bobcats last year, nearly three times the 680 killed in 2004, a majority for pelts, according to CPW records reviewed by The Denver Post. Annual U.S. exports of bobcat pelts top 30,000.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have identified robust prices for pelts as the motivation for the increased killing. Bobcat-fur coats made in China and Russia sell for tens of thousands of dollars.

Australian Cat Cull

Australia has begun dropping poisonous sausages from the air to kill the millions of feral cats that are ravaging native species across the country’s vast landscape.

Officials had been trapping and shooting the felines, which were first brought to Australia by European settlers in the 1700s.

The predators have since ravaged native wildlife, including many species that live nowhere else on Earth. At least 20 mammal species have been driven into extinction with the help of the invasive cats.

The accelerated plan to kill millions of the feral felines by 2020 uses sausages made of kangaroo meat, chicken fat, herbs, spices and poison. The cats are said to die within 15 minutes of eating the mixture.