Bobcat Range in North America: Where They Roam and Where They Don't

Bobcat (Lynx rufus) Distribution Across the Continental U.S.

The bobcat is the most widely distributed native felid in North America, but its range has gaps due to habitat loss, agriculture, and climate.

Where Bobcats ARE Found (Lower 48)

• Throughout the West: All Pacific, Mountain, Southwest states.
• South & Southeast: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky.
• Mid-Atlantic & Northeast: Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, New England.
• Upper Midwest (partial): Wisconsin, Michigan (UP), Missouri (southern).

Where They Are ABSENT or RARE

• North Dakota – mostly absent (intensive agriculture).
• Minnesota – absent from southern/western farmland; present in NE forests.
• Iowa – extirpated; rare vagrants only.
• Missouri – northern/central absent; Ozarks population only.
• Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma (western) – absent from open plains; only in eastern wooded corridors.
• Texas (Panhandle, Llano Estacado) – absent from high plains.

Canada & Mexico

• Canada: Southern BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, QC, NB, NS – expanding north with climate change.
• Mexico: Northern & central states (Sonora to Oaxaca) – subspecies L. r. escuinapae.

Habitat Preferences

• Forests, swamps, desert edges, scrublands, suburban fringes.
• Need cover (den sites), prey (rabbits, rodents), water.
• Avoid open cropland, dense urban cores.

Bobcats are adaptable survivors—reclaiming territory in the Northeast and Midwest as forests regrow.