‘Very sassy’ bobcat recovering at DuPage wildlife center after run-in with vehicle

The DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center has an unlikely guest.

The Glen Ellyn facility added a Bobcat to the nearly 200 species under its care, when the injured 16-pound female was transferred to the 27,000-square-foot wildlife hospital this month from the Oaken Acres Wildlife Center in Sycamore.

Estimated to be less than a year old, the bobcat is the first to be treated at the center since 2018 and, one expert says, a sign of the species’ ongoing rebound in Illinois.

She was found “minimally reactive” in a homeowner’s yard in downstate Oregon, with injuries that veterinarians say were likely the result of a collision with a car. A wildlife trapper captured the injured wild cat and brought her to Oaken Acres, which later transported her to Glen Ellyn for further treatment.

The DuPage center has access to a more robust collection of sedative drugs and diagnostic tools, both of which were necessary to handle what head veterinarian Sarah Reich describes as a “very sassy” animal.

“As a species, (bobcats) are very defensive creatures,” Reich said. “Anytime we are close by, she is growling, hissing, lunging, baring those teeth.”

That behavior is “very appropriate” under the circumstances and a good sign that she is heading in the right direction, Reich added.

Once the bobcat arrived at the facility, Reich and her team performed a full diagnostic examination, which revealed a few parasites, old injuries to the cat’s scapula and hip, evidence of some internal bleeding, and a fractured canine tooth.

That fractured tooth required emergency surgery to address. After monitoring the bobcat’s condition for a few days to make sure she was strong enough to go under anesthesia for a second time, Reich and an on-site dental unit went to work.

“The tooth itself was broken underneath the gum line,” said Reich. “That area definitely would have predisposed her to pain and infection down the line, which could have traveled into the bone and led to worse things.”

The next step was to get the bobcat into an outdoor enclosure “as quickly as possible” in order to limit contact with the center’s veterinarians.

Fortunately, she healed well from the surgery, and the center was able to move her outside within a few days.

“For an animal like her who is very stressed, very high strung, we want to get them into an enclosure that limits their contact with us because that's going to make them feel a lot more secure,” Reich said. “They're going to heal a lot better if they're not as stressed out.”

The bobcat has been eating and moving well since being transferred to the outdoor enclosure, but she is by no means out of the woods.

Reich is especially wary of internal bleeding that she observed in the cat’s ultrasound, noting that there is “always the possibility that there is more going on” with internal trauma.

“For all of our wild patients, they are going to hide signs of illness or disease because they don’t want to appear weak,” she said. “While we are very hopeful that she is going to make a full recovery, and she’s doing everything that we expect her to do at this point, we are still obviously pretty guarded in situations like this.”

Michael Eichholz, the director of the Center for Wildlife Sustainability Research at Southern Illinois University, said bobcat populations are on the rise in Illinois, after habitat losses nearly eliminated their presence in the state by the mid-20th century.

Efforts to restore southern Illinois’ forests began in earnest in the 1930s, culminating in the establishment of the Shawnee National Forest in 1939. The state’s bobcat population gradually increased, aided by a 1972 statewide ban against hunting and trapping them. Illinois’ only native wild cat was removed from the state’s threatened and endangered species list by 1999.

“As populations increase (in southern Illinois) and start reaching closer to their carrying capacity, the males and young individuals get pushed out of the base area, which has now led the population to extend further north,” said Eichholz, adding that he’s seen this trend build over the past few decades.

While the more urban northern third of Illinois does not provide as good of a habitat as the southern third for the forest-loving bobcat, Eichholz said it is still adequate. He anticipates the population growth will continue barring an unforeseen shock, like a disease.

“When I was growing up in southern Illinois, we'd hear about bobcats, but rarely see a bobcat,” said Eichholz. “Now, I see one once a month.”

hhorowitz@dailyherald.com