Are Bobcats Saving Kiawah Island?
ReSeaRCh on an iConiC Cat PinPointS lanD foR PReSeRvation
By Shane B. Roberts, Ph.D., James D. Jordan, Pete Bettinger, Ph.D., and Robert J. Warren, Ph.D.
Shane B. Roberts,
Ph.D., is Wildlife
Biologist with the
Idaho Department
of Fish and Game.
Credit: James D. Jordan
In the first few months of this year, biologists began searching the dense scrub of South Carolina’s Kiawah Island to catch and collar
about half a dozen bobcats (Lynx rufus), the latest
subjects in an ongoing GPS study of bobcat use of
the island. As this and earlier studies make clear,
the normally reclusive cats are adapting to development on the island—and helping to save some of its
natural habitats in the process.
This is a story of how wildlife research can aid land-use planning for the benefit of habitat conservation,
property values, and the survival of a top-tier predator at the urban-wildland interface. It’s a story of
success that begins with Kiawah itself.
Kiawah Island is a coastal barrier island roughly
17 kilometers long and two wide, just south of
Charleston. Residential and resort development
began on the island in 1974. Today, about 2,000
of 3,000 housing lots have been developed on
the island, where golf courses, homes, and resort
communities lie within a mosaic of marshland,
maritime forest, shrub thickets, and dunes.
after capturing and sedating an adult bobcat on Kiawah island, biologist James Jordan
applies a GPS-enabled collar for tracking the animal’s movements. though GPS tracking
began in 2007, biologists have monitored bobcats here since 2000, studying their land-use patterns and responses to residential-resort development.
Credit: eric G. Rice
By the mid-1990s, many residents had become
concerned over the rate of growth. Some feared that
rapid development could damage Kiawah’s natural
beauty and abundant wildlife, two of its main attractions for residents and visitors alike. To address
this concern, a group of residents founded the
Kiawah Island Natural Habitat Conservancy (the
Conservancy) in 1997. The group hoped to educate
visitors and residents about Kiawah’s wildlife ecology, and to preserve wildlife habitat by purchasing
properties, encouraging conservation easements,
and promoting native landscaping to create backyard habitat. A major goal was to maintain an
abundant and visible wildlife population that fit
within the social and ecological carrying capacity of
the island. That’s why bobcats entered the picture.
Value of an Apex Predator
Scent-station surveys conducted between 1997 and
2007 show that Kiawah Island has maintained a
fairly stable population of about 30 bobcats at a
density of roughly 1. 4 bobcats per square kilometer
of upland (non-salt marsh) habitat (Jordan 1998; J.
Jordan, Town of Kiawah Island, unpublished data).
This is notable, especially as previous research in
other portions of the United States has shown that
bobcats generally avoid developed areas (Tigas et al.
2002, Riley et al. 2003, Riley 2006).
A stable population of bobcats has ensured that the
island’s population of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus
virginianus) has remained in check. During much
of the year bobcats on Kiawah prey on cotton rats
(Sigmodon hispidus) and other rodents. In the
summer months, however, the cats feed heavily on
white-tailed deer fawns, accounting for 67 percent
of all fawn mortality on Kiawah (Roberts 2007).
This predation is the major factor limiting deer
population growth on the island.
Deer control is key to Kiawah’s conservation.
Without some form of control, suburban deer populations often grow to a level of ecological or social
overabundance, resulting in damage to habitats and
landscaping as well as property damage and human
injury from deer-vehicle collisions (McShea et al.
