Bobcat an uncommon sight in southwest MN
Game camera captures photo of bobcat near Lynd
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LYND -- Two Lynd area residents caught an unusual sight on a game camera this week - a bobcat. On Thursday, Brady and Jesse Orvis shared a photo of the animal taken that morning, by a camera located around a half-mile west of Lynd.
It's not common to see a bobcat in this part of Minnesota. But that doesn't mean they aren't there, said Jason Abraham, with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
"It's not something you'd see every day," Abraham said. Bobcats tend not to live in densely populated areas, and can be tough to spot. "They're very camouflaged, very difficult to see in the wild," he said.
Evidence of bobcats in southern Minnesota has been shown through sightings and through trapping. There has been a trapping season for bobcats in southern Minnesota for the past two years, Abraham said. In 2024, a total of 34 bobcats were taken. In 2025, there were 29. Most of the trapped bobcats came from the Mississippi River corridor, in southeastern Minnesota, he said.
However, in 2025, the total included two bobcats from Rock County, and one from Yellow Medicine County, he said.
Abraham said the DNR has also kept track of confirmed sightings of bobcats in the southern part of the state.
"The vast majority of sightings we see are in the Mississippi River corridor, but there are some in the Minnesota River corridor," he said.
The Orvis' photo showed an animal with the short tail and black-and-white ear markings that help distinguish a bobcat. The wild cats typically hunt smaller mammals, like rabbits, squirrels or other rodents, Abraham said.
"They require a fair amount of prey to survive," he said. As a result, bobcats tend to have lower population densities within in their territory.
There are higher populations of bobcats in northern Minnesota, Abraham said. However, "They have really kind of started to expand their numbers across the state," he said. "They're a very adaptable species."