California Opens Bobcat Plan Comments; No Hunting Season Reinstated

Archive note — published October 27, 2026 from an earlier prepared draft. The displayed date is the original source report date, not the date this page first went online. Rechecked October 27: CDFW’s announcement still gives November 1, 2026 as the comment deadline; the draft does not reinstate a hunting season.

California has released a draft bobcat conservation and management plan for public comment, giving hunters and other residents a chance to weigh in on the science behind future management. Comments are due November 1, 2026. The draft does not reopen bobcat hunting.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says five years of intensive study show bobcats distributed throughout the state, with a stable population estimated at more than 62,000 animals. That estimate is similar to the department’s estimates from 1977 and 1981, but the agency says the earlier work lacked the scientific and statistical rigor of the new effort. A statewide estimate also does not mean every local population is growing or holding steady.

The 133-page draft follows the population monitoring project’s findings released in August. Both efforts stem from Assembly Bill 1254, which barred hunting, trapping and other take of bobcats except in limited circumstances, including depredation permits. The law required a management plan before bobcat hunting could again be considered. Only the California Fish and Game Commission can reinstate a season; the plan supplies scientific information and potential management scenarios for that process.

Vehicle strikes and disease, particularly mange, are leading causes of death cited in the draft. There is an important limitation: those figures reflect the deaths researchers can most easily detect. They should not be treated as a complete accounting of every source of bobcat mortality.

Anyone commenting should read the draft and distinguish the population findings from the separate question of what harvest, if any, the commission might authorize. Send written comments to wildlifemgt@wildlife.ca.gov with “California Bobcat Conservation and Management Plan” in the subject line. The source announcement links to both the draft and the population report and provides a mailing option.

Illustrative image: Bobcat; credit: Larry Pace. Public Domain, via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (https://www.fws.gov/media/bobcat). This is a species illustration, not a photograph of the reported location, project or event.