Bobcats Are Out and About in Sandown, New Hampshire
If you live in Sandown and have small animals please be advised that several bobcats have been spotted roaming the streets over the weekend.
Sheila Flavin posted this photo to the Sandown, NH Community Facebook page:
The photo was taken on Chestnut Hill Road and apparently there were four!
Members of the group really appreciated the heads up. Here's what the people are saying:
Janise Hurley: Had them in our yard one day. They were playing like 2 kittens.
(omg how cute!!)
Joe Klimkofski: Wow that’s crazy I have yet to see one for myself
(same here, Joe)
Brooke Mackey: So cool!! I thought they were solitary animals?
(I have no idea, but it doesn't appear that way)
The Bobcat population in New Hampshire is thriving, but according to the Concord Monitor, it hasn't always been that way. Studies prove that bobcat numbers in New Hampshire could have dropped to as low as 150 in the late '80s. Then hunting was banned in 1989 and their numbers have gone up ever since. A University of New Hampshire/New Hampshire Fish and Game survey estimated their population in 2013 was around 1,400, the Monitor report stated.
For many people, bobcats are nuisance. They prey on domestic chickens, feast on people's bird feeders and we are seeing more and more bobcats as road-kill throughout the state. The article states that New Hampshire Fish and Game were getting more requests to trap or reallocate bobcats back in 2017.
I have yet to see a bobcat strolling around in the wild but I feel like it is a right of passage now that I live in New Hampshire. In the meantime let us reminisce about this bold bobcat who was strolling around the parking lot at Sam's Club in Seabrook back in June.