Indiana DNR: How this environmental agency works
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is charged with managing and protecting the state’s natural and recreational resources. However, its conservation decisions can be controversial.
Dwight Adams, dwight.adams@indystar.com
Bobcat trapping is legal in Indiana for the first time since 1969.For many years, bobcats were on Indiana’s endangered list. But by 2005 their population had recovered to the point where they were taken off the list.Some say, however, that it is premature to open season on bobcats once more. They argue more data is needed to prove the bobcat population is robust enough to survive trapping.
Nick Erny spends an hour or two each day with his 12-year-old son, walking through the Dubois County woods and checking on a dozen or so bobcat traps they set out earlier this month.
This year marks the first time in more than 50 years that trappers like Erny have been able to target bobcats in Indiana. But not everyone is welcoming the news that bobcat trapping in Indiana is back; animal rights advocates say it is premature and the data is not robust enough to support killing Indiana’s only native cat.
Bobcats were hunted and trapped to near extinction in Indiana before they were listed as an endangered species in 1969. For decades the cats precariously held their ground in the state before the Indiana Department of Natural Resources deemed the population healthy enough in 2005 to be removed from the endangered list.
After numerous previous attempts to make bobcat trapping legal again, in 2024 State Senator Scott Baldwin, R-Noblesville, introduced a bill that eventually opened the trapping season on bobcats. He told IndyStar at the time he wanted to ensure bobcats do not overrun other species, such as birds and rabbits.
Over the course of last year and into early 2025, the Indiana Department of Natural Resource’s Natural Resources Council held a series of public meetings and decided to allow trapping in 40 southern counties stretching from Vermillion in the west to Franklin in the east. The rulemaking committee set a statewide quota at 250 bobcats for the season and allowed each trapper to take a single cat.
Other states, like Illinois, Kentucky and Michigan, have long allowed bobcat trapping, so Erny has been able to trap there in the past. Trapping in his home state, however, has been a “different kind of cat and mouse game,” he said.
Bobcats are fun to trap and make good table fare, Erny said, adding he will use the pelt he gets to craft ear muffs, headbands and drink coozies.
Erny uses the same restraint-style and nonlethal traps he sets for coyotes but adds a little extra flair. Because bobcats are visual hunters, the traps need to be high-appeal, he said. He hangs CDs and flashy objects above the traps and will sometimes add feathers and other fluttering objects.
The season this year is all about humanely managing Indiana’s growing bobcat population, Erny said, since the species’ only real predator other than man is nature.
“Just like barn cats or house cats, when you’ve got a whole bunch of cats living in your barn, eventually when females breed, the toms come in and kill those kittens,” Erny said. “Mother Nature is less forgiving than humans.”
Indiana opened bobcat trapping season Nov. 8, and just under 1,000 trappers have purchased a $15 bobcat license from the state.
During the debates over the bill, State Senator Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, proposed two amendments that would have required the state to study bobcat populations and make sure they were sustainable before approving a trapping season. Lawmakers voted down the amendments.
Proponents like Erny argue that the bobcat population can survive a trapping season and think that the state’s rules that include a limit are a good start. If anything, Erny said, that threshold is too low.
“At least in the southern part of the state, the cat population will handle a harder harvest,” He said.
The season runs through Jan. 31, 2026, or until the statewide quota is met.
DNR using season to gather info
Because this is the first bobcat trapping season since the species was removed from the endangered species, DNR will carefully study the trapping data, said Geriann Albers, furbearer and gamebird program leader with the agency. That information, along with data from other seasons, will help DNR tweak or adjust future seasons.
“We’ve been [trapping] river otters for 10 years now, and that is the exact same process,” Albers said. “We have experience doing this and every year we learn something new.”
DNR will collect data detailing how many traps are set out and for how many nights, Albers said. This data will give the department an indication of how hard trappers have to work to trap animals, she said. One trapper setting out one trap for one night equals one trap-night. If one trapper sets out three traps for one night, that equals three trap-nights.
If the statewide quota can be met with only 1,000 trap-nights, that will suggest that the bobcat population is robust, she explained. But if it takes 25,000 trap-nights, that could lead the DNR to lower the threshold on the number of bobcats that can be trapped and killed during the season.
As of Friday, Nov. 7, one day before the season began, the DNR had sold 945 bobcat licenses. Four days after the season opened, on Wednesday, Nov. 12, trappers had already reported 35 tagged cats, more than 10% of the quota.
Before the season began, groups opposing the trapping rules argued the state did not have the data to prove bobcat populations could sustain losing numbers. Albers, however, said DNR used a population model to determine the quota to allow bobcats to thrive.
“We care about bobcats and we want them to keep doing well,” Albers said. “We don’t think this harvest season will negatively impact bobcats at all,”
Opposition groups remain vocal
Animal rights activists, however, disagree. The Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States, issued a news release Nov. 4 saying that in the absence of reliable population data, it is possible that restoring trapping could devastate Indiana’s bobcat population. The group conducted a poll of Indiana voters in 2024 that showed the majority oppose the trapping season.
Samantha Chapman, Indiana state director of Humane World for Animals, said in a news release that the trapping season will only appease a small group of recreational trappers who make up less than %0.1 of the state’s population.
The group fought to have the mandated trapping rules set to a zero-quota limit, meaning that while a season existed, no bobcats could legally be trapped. This would allow the state to theoretically abidey by the new law at the same time as it would protect the population by not allowing anyone to kill cats.
“Indiana’s first bobcat-trapping season is a tragedy for our state’s shy little wild cats—and a brutal reminder that the majority of Hoosiers, who highly value humane and ethical treatment of animals, were silenced by the Natural Resources Commission,” Chapman said. “The DNR’s decision is a betrayal of wildlife conservation and the public’s trust.”
But Erny said the best way to get accurate information about the health of the population is to allow people to resume trapping bobcats and see what transpires.
“I’m thinking the DNR is going to get a plethora of knowledge,” Erny said. “They know there are good concentrations [of bobcats] in southern Indiana, and I think they will be floored at the way the numbers come in.”
And proving his point, Erny caught the first bobcat — an average-sized male— in Dubois County within two days of setting out his traps.
“It was exciting to actually catch one in Indiana,” Erny said.
This means the season is over for Erny but he will still check traps. His wife and son have yet to trap a bobcat, so the Erny family will head to the woods every day to check those traps, hoping to find a bobcat snared inside.
IndyStar’s environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on BlueSky @karlstartswithk.bsky.social or X @karlstartswithk.