Natural Order Animal Husbandry has studied Lynx rufus since 1994.   The facility's male bobcat Bobby weighed about 35 pounds. His pelage was rosetted, and his tail  very bobbed - less than two inches in length.  The female bobcat, named Dot, was gray and covered with large black spots all over her back and sides.  These felines were of unknown ages. Dot did not exhibit estrus behavior that year.

March 10th of 1995 Dot entered estrus, and breeding activity was observed.  Approximately 45 days later, Dot exhibited estrus behaviors again, announcing her sexually receptive state with distinctive calls and increased scent-marking behaviors during early morning and dusk hours.  Bobby bobcat courted her, following her closely and vocalizing territorial calls of his own.  There was never any aggression observed between them and mating frequency occurred about twice an hour for a three-hour period around both sunrise and sunset.  Estrus lasted about five days total. 

Dot was moved to a separate compound for birthing privacy.  She gave birth to a litter of three bobcat kittens in July of 1995, and after initially cleaning up her offspring, she abandoned them.  My husband heard them mewing and one kitten had actually crawled through the wall of the cage and was found in our yard area.  My husband carried these bobcat kittens back to the den box, but shortly after they were placed inside, Dot removed them and dropped them on the ground.  We decided to remove them for hand rearing.

Dot did not return to estrus that year.  Every year since, she has reliably bred around March 10th and delivered live kittens in May.  After pulling the bobcat kittens at two weeks of age for hand rearing, Dot has conceived a second litter and delivered again in August in most years.  While I do not know the exact reason Dot abandoned her first litter, I do suspect moving her from her familiar surroundings contributed to her anxiety and subsequent abandonment.

Successful Introductions of Adult Bobcats to Existing Social Groups:  We purchased a group of two females and one male from a breeding facility.  These bobcats, though housed in separate cages, were represented as compatible felines.  It was observed at our facility though, that one female, whom we named Baby, was significantly subordinate to both other cats, a female we named Bobette and the male called Buzz. For the first two months after arrival, Baby spent all of her time on the elevated wooden platforms and top tower space.  Attempts to occupy ground space resulted in her being challenged and chased back to the elevated habitat. We had to provide food and water to her on the top level of the tower. Eventually she was tolerated and gained access to the ground space as well.  Most sparring was observed between the two females, but occasionally Buzz also sparred with Baby.  Fighting seemed to be related to determining dominance hierarchy and there was never a need to administer any medical attention.

Six months later we acquired an adult female named Dolly, who was initially housed alone in one of the smaller cages.  Dolly was not given access to Buzz, as the last introduction between Bobby and Rosy had proven fatal and taught us to use extreme caution introducing adult bobcats.  We did manage to introduce Dolly without incident to the other two females, Bobette and Baby.  The following spring after her arrival, either Dolly failed to cycle or I failed to recognize her signs of estrus. The breeding season was almost over before she was allowed access to Buzz. 

The event that brought about the introduction of these two bobcats was precipitated by the unmistakable estrus calls of Bobette, whom was occupying the same cage as Dolly. My attempts to lure these two females into separate cages was unsuccessful so I opted to allow Buzz access to them so that he could mate with Bobette.  Much to my relief, this male entered their compound and promptly bred with Bobette, while Dolly stood close by observing.  Buzz never did exhibit any signs of aggression towards Dolly.  From that day on I felt it was safe to allow these felines to share habitat space, but they did not mate that year.

In November, we acquired Bella, who was approximately 7 months of age. She was contained in one of the smaller cages during a quarantine period.  This adolescent bobcat expressed much interest in Buzz, purring, and greeting him whenever he was near their common wall.  Since there seemed to be no hostility being exhibited, after only a few weeks of isolation, Buzz was granted access to her by way of the connecting sliding gate.  Bella was extremely flirtatious towards Buzz. She initiated most contact, purring audibly, playfully jumping on him, rubbing her backside under his throat and positing her posterior in his face.

After the success of that initial introduction, Bella was then given access to the larger cage housing the other three females. Studies done by Bailey (1972) Miller and Speake (1978a) reported wild adults were tolerant of juveniles in their home range.  Bella\'s arrival was somewhat like that of a dispersing adolescent in the wild, and her presence was not challenged. No territorial or dominance battles ensued.

The social group was expanded to all five felines, and they were given either access to all three cages, or subdivided into different groups depending upon their moods and our needs.  This arrangement lasted for about 16 months, until the following breeding season.  Bella was sexually mature and increasingly aggressive encounters occurred between Bella and Bobette. 

This hostility and resulting claw and bite wounds on Bella escalated to where these two females are now permanently separated.   Bella shares habitat with the subordinate female Baby.  And the largest female Dolly is living with Bobette, the dominant female from the original pair.  Buzz travels between these two groups by way of the slide gates.  When Buzz loiters near a slide gate I open it and allow him access to another cage. This arrangement has worked well for us.
The two smaller compounds are usually treated as one habitat space by leaving their sliding gate open.  When birthing time approaches, is this gate closed to create two separate cages. The two groups of females were kept confined to their separate sides for two years, and then this past year we reversed the females\' territories.  This has given them a new habitat experience, and they will be giving birth in different housing this year. 

For breeding and birthing purposes, each of the three cages has a wooden, insulated and baffled, birthing house with a removable door on the back.  They are backed up against one wall of the tower structure.  Each house is also rigged with a trap door on the front.  When mothers leave their kittens to eat their dinner, the trap door is sprung by us and then the kittens are removed by the accessing the door on the back of the house.  This is accomplished from a connecting cage. 

Because we control Buzz\'s access to his females we can to some degree control the date of conception of kittens.  We time things such that litters are born about 12 to 14 days apart so that we can remove kittens without disturbing another nursing mother in the process. 
The largest cage, with the 4-foot by 8-foot tower, is modified the same as Bobby and Dot\'s cage.  The two wooden walls and one wire wall and one installable wire panel wall can form a temporary holding cage for a mother with kittens.  This sub-cage arrangement allows us the ability to house up to three bobcats at once in this larger enclosure while still allowing one mother the privacy to give birth to kittens.

These compound arrangements have served us well, and every female has reliably produced and nursed, averaging three kittens per litter. Most of these bobcats have also averaged two litters per year.
The common wall between the largest cage and the cage that contains Bobby and Dot is lined with wooden boards to limit visual and physical contact between the two male bobcats. When Buzz is occupying the large cage these males spend much time patrolling this dividing surface, scent marking, chewing the boards and vocalizing their territorial threats.  These behaviors escalate in the spring even before the females exhibit signs of estrus. Buzz is more likely to devote his attention to challenging Bobby through their common wall then courting and breeding his females. 

Because of these behaviors, when springtime approaches we now rotate the females in heat and Buzz into one of the smaller cages away from the large cage that shares a common wall with Bobby.

Captive Bobcat Mating Behavior Observation: Recently I had the opportunity to observe mating between Buzz and Bella.  He had been housed in the adjoining cage, and I noticed visual signs of estrus exhibited by Bella; increased calling, audible purring, tail quivering, rolling and scent marking of the slide gate separating her from Buzz.  I allowed Buzz to enter her compound; wherein she immediately greeted him with body rubs and presented her posterior to him.  He did not show any interest, but instead patrolled and investigated the enclosure for several minutes. 

After about five minutes, Bella presented herself in the lordosis position in front of Buzz. He approached her from behind and placed his paw upon the center of her back and both cats remained still for about a minute. Next Buzz quickly grabbed her neck in his mouth and held her for at least another minute.  Bella remained motionless.  After this considerable pause, Buzz positioned himself over her genitals and began to initiate copulation. He spent another minute gaining proper positioning, and once accomplished, the mating lasted about 30 seconds, culminating with a growl by Buzz, I presume during ejaculation.  Immediately after pulling out, Buzz stood up on his hind legs and balanced himself in this rather curious rabbit-like position for about 30 seconds, each cat staring at the other. Then both cats moved themselves in opposite directions. There was no swatting by the female or any aggression initiated by either feline after the mating.