Trapping of bobcats will soon be illegal in areas of California near federal and state preserves, including Joshua Tree National Park.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1213 on Friday. The measure also takes away state subsidies for bobcat trapping and forbids the practice on private land without the owner's permission.
The legislation was a response to a significant increase in bobcat kills throughout the state, but especially in the area near Joshua Tree National Park. Trappers have gone so far as to place the devices around the boundaries of that preserve, catching and killing the animals if they wander beyond the imaginary lines that set it off on maps from other properties.
A 2012 report from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife documented a 51 percent increase between 2010-2011, while the previous year's report showed a 57 percent increase from 2009-2010.
The increase has been driven by demand for pelts from foreign nations, especially China and Russia.
California last updated its count of the number of bobcats within its borders in the early 1980s. AT that time it was estimated that 70,000 of the animals roamed the state.
Brown wrote a signing statement in connection with AB 1213 that asked the legislature to fund a census.
California's bobcat subspecies (Lynx rufus californicus and Lynx rufus mohavensis) are not included on the state's list of threatened and endangered species. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature considers bobcats to be a species of least concern.
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| Photo by Annica Kreuter, courtesy Center for Biological Diversity |
