Bobcat Winter Food Habits 119 



Greater use of deer by adult male bobcats may be related to differ- 

 ences in average weight and/ or size of home ranges of males and 

 females. Weights of males were larger than those of females, and a tele- 

 metry study in the Coastal Plain region indicated the average size of 

 adult male home ranges (N=5) was about 41% larger than home ranges 

 of adult females (N=3) (Lancia et al., in press). Similar ratios of male to 

 female ranges were observed by Bailey (1974) in Idaho, Hall and New- 

 som (1976) in Louisiana, and Miller (1980) in Alabama. 



Gray squirrels ranked fourth in overall frequency of occurrence 

 among mammals (Table 3). The relative percent frequencies of squirrels 

 in this study were similar for all bobcat sex and age groups (Fig. 2). 

 Squirrels were found in two stomachs from the Mountain region and 

 one stomach from the Piedmont region. Similarly, Progulske (1952) 

 found squirrels in two of 25 stomachs he examined from western North 

 Carolina. In the Coastal Plain region, squirrels ranked fourth in fre- 

 quency of occurrence. 



Raccoons ranked fifth among mammals in the statewide sample 

 and occurred only in stomachs from the Coastal Plain and Piedmont 

 regions (Table 3). Raccoons occurred primarily in adult male stomachs 

 and were not found in any kitten stomachs (Fig. 2). The greater occur- 

 rence of raccoons in adult male stomachs again may reflect the greater 

 weight and larger home range of male bobcats. 



Small rodents were infrequent food items. Voles, Microtus penn- 

 sylvanicus and M. pinetorum, were the most frequently identified small 

 rodents and occurred in stomachs from all regions. Voles ranked first 

 (with deer) in percent occurrence in the Mountain region (Table 3) and 

 were found primarily in stomachs of kittens and adult females. In the 

 Coastal Plain, adult females and kittens had greater observed than 

 expected frequencies of voles (p<0.05). Other small rodents were prey 

 of adult females and kittens but were seldom taken by adult males (Fig. 

 2). Fritts and Sealander (1978) also reported that occurrences of rats 

 and mice were greater in the stomachs of adult females and kittens than 

 in adult male bobcats. 



We examined 141 kitten (59% males) stomachs containing food. 

 Like adults, kittens relied primarily on rabbits and cotton rats for food 

 (Fig. 2); however, the occurrence of some items in kitten stomachs was 

 notably different from adults. Deer occurred in only three (2.1%) kitten 

 stomachs, compared to 51 (19.8%) adult stomachs. Two intermediate- 

 sized prey species, raccoons and opossums, occasionally were eaten by 

 adults but were absent or rarely found in the kitten sample (Fig. 2). The 

 low occurrence of large and intermediate-sized prey species in kitten 

 stomachs probably reflected an inability of kittens to capture larger-sized 

 prey. The infrequent occurrences of these prey species in kitten stom- 



