{"id":454220,"date":"2026-02-07T09:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454220\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:22:14","slug":"iowa-dnr-says-local-bobcat-sightings-are-a-wildlife-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/454220\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa DNR says local bobcat sightings are a \u2018wildlife success story\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">GRUNDY COUNTY, Iowa (KCCI) &#8211; Residents in Conrad have seen a new furry visitor recently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A bobcat turned up Sunday at Dreamland Playground, and photographer Ben Neff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1A13BMMgLL\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1A13BMMgLL\/\">shared his images online<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The bobcat, who Neff nicknamed \u201cComet,\u201d was seen around the playground and hiding from the camera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The sighting is rare for the area, Grundy County Conservation Board Executive Director Nick Buseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcci.com\/article\/conrad-playground-bobcat-photos\/70261023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kcci.com\/article\/conrad-playground-bobcat-photos\/70261023\">told KCCI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He says you can identify if a bobcat has been through the area by its tracks \u2014 the round prints are slightly larger than a 50-cent coin and don\u2019t show claw marks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Iowa DNR says bobcat sightings are becoming more common as the population has grown over the last 20 years, what the DNR is generally considering as a \u201cwildlife success story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhile not common in winter, this bobcat is likely just hunting for rodents or small birds for its next meal,\u201d Iowa DNR Furbearer Biologist Vince Evelsizer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1BPAnC91Ha\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1BPAnC91Ha\/\">shared<\/a>. \u201cWe are seeing more bobcats in urban settings throughout Iowa than ever before. Fortunately, bobcats don\u2019t typically cause conflicts with human safety or pets, but it\u2019s always good to keep a closer eye on small dogs and house cats when they\u2019re outside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The DNR stressed that residents shouldn\u2019t feed or leave food out for bobcats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">You may also see more bobcats as they search for mates during breeding season in February and March.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bobcats tend to avoid humans. The DNR can assist if you believe a bobcat is acting aggressively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GRUNDY COUNTY, Iowa (KCCI) &#8211; Residents in Conrad have seen a new furry visitor recently. A bobcat turned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[212565,212564,36780,79,201],"class_list":["post-454220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-bobcat-photos","tag-bobcat-sightings","tag-bobcats","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}