Large bobcat captured, relocated from Ivins neighborhood

IVINS — After a large bobcat was spotted walking around a neighborhood in Southern Utah during the daytime, the Utah Department of Natural Resources trapped and relocated the animal Sunday.

A bobcat is trapped in a cage in a backyard in the Padre Lakes neighborhood Sunday, Ivins, Utah, March 25, 2018 | Photo by Spencer Ricks, St. George News

The male bobcat was spotted in the Padre Lakes retirement community in Ivins, where it had killed a house cat and was seen hunting for geese and ducks in a pond, said Steve Shipley, a local resident who used to work for the DNR. Shipley reported the bobcat to the DNR, who sent an officer to place a scented trap near his backyard.

Shipley said he was worried about the bobcat attacking his chihuahua or his house cat that had been too scared to leave the house recently.

“(Bobcats are) nocturnal, so you don’t see them as much,” DNR Sgt. Mark Ekins said. “In the daytime, it’s extremely uncommon. So when someone sees them like they have here, it’s time to move it.”

The trap was set Saturday night by DNR officers, and by the next morning, it had trapped the bobcat. Ekins picked up the bobcat Sunday afternoon and transported it to the wilderness around Pinto north of Pine Valley Mountain. The bobcat was not taken out of the trap without a fight, though; it hissed, jumped around and clawed at the air as Ekins put it in a kennel for transporting.

The bobcat was one of the largest ones he had ever seen, Ekins said.

Utah Department of Natural Resources Sgt. Mark Ekins struggles to put the bobcat into a kennel to be transported to the wilderness in the Padre Lakes neighborhood Sunday, Ivins, Utah, March 25, 2018 | Photo by Spencer Ricks, St. George News

While wild bobcats are rarely euthanized, if the same bobcat continually attacks pets or property fowl, Ekins said it would be killed. He was considering calling a biologist to put a GPS collar on the captured bobcat to track its movements before releasing it in the wild.

“We’ve relocated so many bobcats from Ivins,” Ekins said, “so I’m always curious if they ever come back.”

The reason the bobcat was in the neighborhood was probably because of nearby construction that was pushing it out of its natural habitat, Shipley said.

Ekins has caught around nine or 10 bobcats in Ivins over the past 11 years, he said.

“Bobcats are actually really common in Ivins,” Ekins said. “There’s a lot more than people think.”

Bobcats are known to attack pets and other small animals when they become comfortable, but Ekins said they usually stay away from people.

“It’s going to be a lot safer for our cats now,” Shipley said.

Before leaving, Ekins reset the trap in case there is another bobcat in the area.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2018, all rights reserved.

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10 Comments

  • ScanMeister March 25, 2018 at 8:33 pm

    Great handling of this ticked off kitty. One could get sliced and diced quite easily. Good job!

  • comments March 25, 2018 at 8:34 pm

    That is not a happy kitty. You’d think there’d be a way to empty the trap directly into a carrier. Or a carrier sold, where that would be possible.

  • hiker75 March 26, 2018 at 6:44 am

    So glad it was captured and relocated instead of shot. Thanks to all involved!

  • dogmatic March 26, 2018 at 7:26 am

    As a lifetime resident it saddens me to see the nature wildlife being replaced by chihuahuas .

  • Anon March 26, 2018 at 8:14 am

    That’s a pretty kitty. They are one of the desert’s prettiest animals. 🙂

  • Hans March 26, 2018 at 9:41 am

    I totally agree with Dogmatic. I can do with fewer straying house cats.

    • comments March 26, 2018 at 11:57 am

      agree

      • NotSoFast March 26, 2018 at 5:57 pm

        How about taking all stray, domestic cats to the Vegas area?

        • comments March 26, 2018 at 6:56 pm

          LOL. just haul them over and dump them or what?

          I’d rather have a few roaming bobcats to clean them up

  • No Filter March 26, 2018 at 9:43 am

    Padre Lakes is right next to their habitat. They live in caves of the lava fields right next to the houses. I bet they run the streets in that community all the time at night.

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