Many Dallas-Fort Worth area residents share their neighborhoods with wild carnivores so elusive they are seldom seen.

An urban bobcat study conducted in Tarrant County indicates that the wild cats readily adapt to an environment that includes more than 220,000 people, fast cars and housing developments. The 15-month study also concluded that bobcats pose no threat to human pets.

The research was done in coordination with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the USDA Wildlife Service and the Welder Wildlife Foundation. Julie Golla, a masters degree student from Utah State, led the project on roughly 18,300 acres that included portions of Fort Worth, Bedford, Euless and Hurst.

She trapped 11 bobcats and equipped them with VHF transmitters and GPS trackers. Three of the research cats were killed during the study -- one by traffic, one by a train and the other by a gunshot wound.

Trail cam photos documented kittens successfully raised in the urban environment. Researchers extrapolated 42 total bobcats in the study area. The urban cats were found to have a much smaller home range than their country counterparts.

The male bobcat home ranges averaged 1,235 urban acres. One homebody male never left a 640-acre area while another roamed across 6,417 acres. The smallest female home range was 160 acres and the largest was 1,559 acres.

Though they're hard to count because they are so secretive, Texas probably has more bobcats than any other state. Michael Tewes of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute is one of the nation's acknowledged experts on wild cats. Tewes estimates about 200,000 bobcats in Texas with the highest densities in South Texas. Portions of southern Texas support as many as one bobcat per square kilometer (about 247 acres).

South Texas is a bobcat hotspot because the region's human population is relatively small, and South Texas habitat includes vast ranches that support an excellent prey base as well as cover for the small but efficient predators. The average adult bobcat weighs about 20 pounds.

"One of the most important goals of the study was to document how bobcats that live in urban settings selected for or avoided anthropogenic (influenced by humans) habitat," TPWD biologist Richard Heilbrun said.

"The big take-home message is that urban bobcats are very skilled at navigating their environment. They actively selected habitat that was less than 20 percent developed and avoided habitat that was more than 20 percent developed."

The urban bobcats hunted on golf courses, greenbelts, gravel pits and creek or river corridors. They mostly avoided people, traveling through neighborhoods at night. They used sewers, underground drainages and narrow, treed, fence lines to move undetected.

Wildlife officials hope the bobcat information will encourage more city planners to leave undeveloped wildlife corridors.

"There was no evidence that urban bobcats were eating trash, pets or pet food," said Heilbrun. "We did have one collared male that found a collection of backyard rabbits and a nearby backyard with chickens. Both owners allowed their animals to roam freely in the backyard and didn't lock them up at night."

The bobcat still established a normal home range, indicating that he was not relying on backyard livestock as a primary food source. Heilbrun said the researchers did a cursory examination of urban bobcat diets.

"What we found lined up very well with what rural bobcats eat," he said. "Basically, they eat rats, squirrels, birds and cottontail rabbits. We found a road-killed bobcat that had 22 roof rats in its stomach. Another bobcat dined on nutria, an invasive species. It turns out that bobcats are a pretty good municipal pest control."

A website, inaturalist.org/projects/dfw-carnivores, has been created for citizen naturalists to report carnivore sightings. The project has over 1,100 observations from nearly 250 people.

Besides bobcats, the urban naturalists have reported coyotes, red foxes, gray foxes, raccoons, ringtails, river otters, mink and eastern spotted skunks (a species of greatest conservation need in Texas).

"The ringtail, otter and mink were surprises," said Heilbrun. "Having more eyes and ears in the field can increase our understanding of these animals."

CALENDAR

Saturday, Oct. 8: Irving Bass Club's 77th Semi-Annual Open Catch and Release Individual Tournament at Lake Fork with headquarters at Lake Fork Marina. Details are available from club President Jack Ward by calling 214-914-2852 or e-mail cactusjack@att.net.

Saturday, Oct. 15: National Fishing Lure Collectors Club D-FW Antique Fishing Tackle Show and auction, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Burleson Events Center, For details, contact Chip Rice, 817-295-7750 or e-mail macmatrix@yahoo.com.

Friday, Oct. 21: Annual Texas Shootout clay target event at Elm Fork Shooting Park, 10751 Luna Road, benefiting the Rob Harper Memorial Fund, which raises money to provide recreational soccer access for underprivileged youths. The event is sponsored by the FC Dallas Foundation. Entry information and details are at fcdallas.com/community/txshootout.

Saturday, Oct. 22-Sunday, Oct. 23: Special youth-only weekend for duck hunting in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit.

Thursday, Oct. 27: Dallas Ducks Unlimited Banquet and Fundraiser at Sixty Five Hundred, 6500 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Details and tickets at DallasDucks.org or call Art Brickey, 214-673-9636.

Saturday, Oct. 29: Quail season begins statewide.

Saturday, Oct. 29-Sunday, Oct. 30: Special youth-only weekend for white-tailed deer hunting, statewide, and duck hunting in the South Zone.

Saturday, Oct. 29-Sunday, Oct. 30: First split of duck season in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit.

Friday, Nov. 4: Second split of duck season begins in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit.

Saturday, Nov. 5: White-tailed deer season begins statewide.

Saturday, Nov. 5: First split of duck season begins in the South Zone.

Saturday, Nov. 5-Sunday, Nov. 6: Special youth-only duck hunting weekend in the North Zone.

Saturday, Nov. 12: First split of duck season begins in the North Zone.