FIRST RECORD OF A BOBCAT ON P.E.I. 
     
    
   
   
    
     When Carl Annand of Ellerslie was checking his rabbit snares 
     
     in Foxley River in early December, he found they were being robbed, 
     
     apparently by a fox. He therefore set fox snares as well and was 
     
     surprised on the morning of December 10, 1980 to find he had 
     
     garnered not a red fox, but a large cat, later verified to be a 
     
     female bobcat. Although other bobcats have been reported from the 
     
     west Prince area to the Fish and Wildlife Division, this was the 
     
     first specimen presented for examination. It is thnught that bob- 
     
     cats were introduced to P.E.I. by west Prince residents in the 
     
     early 1970Ps; however, since it is illegal to introduce new 
     
     species to the Island, it is not likely that the details of the 
     
     case can be substantiated. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mr. Annand's bobcat was pelted and the carcass examined by 
     
     furbearer biologist Randall Dibblee and myself. The reproductive 
     
     tract revealed that this female had not recently produced a litter 
     
     and in fact the 'unstretched' uterus was characteristic of a 
     
     barren female. The jaws were sent to Jerry Parker of the Canadian 
     
     Wildlife Service in Sackville where canine teeth were extracted 
     
     for aging purposes. Much as the rings on a tree do, annual 
     
     increments of cementum in most mammals allow an accurate assess- 
     
     ment of an animal's age. The P.E.I. bobcat was 9% years old, not 
     
     old compared to a 25 year old captive bobcat reported by Young 
     
     (1958), but a respectible age for one in the wild. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The fact that the bobcat had reached breeding age but apparently 
     
     had not produced a litter may have resulted from difficulty in 
     
     finding a mate. Only time will tell whether bobcats have become 
     
     established here, but for now this remains the only verified record 
     
     of bobcats on Prince Edward Island. Lynx were here at settlement, 
     
     but the bobcat is truly a new addition to our faunal records. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Reference: Young, Stanley P., 1958. The bobcat of North America. 
     
     Wildlife Management Institute and University of 
     
     Nebraska Press. Lincoln, Nebraska. 193 pp. 
     
    
   
   
    
     by Rosemary Curley 
     
     Fish and Wildlife Division