Bobcat eats family pet, captured and released.

[Xithras]

93. That's not exactly the problem.

I live in the CV about 90 minutes north of where this happened. There are still plenty of bobcats in the Valley, and there's far more open land than developed land. In fact, less than 10% of the Central Valley's overall land is "developed". Most of it is farms.

The real problem is twofold:
1) Valley farmers use lots of insecticides and rodenticides, which reduces the populations of the bobcats native foods like ground mice, squirrels, and birds. Ecologically, modern farms tend to be fairly barren monoculture where nothing lives or grows other than the farmers intended crop (us environmentalists in the CV like to poke fun at our vegan friends over the fact that local cattle ranches usually have the most natural and ecologically diverse habitats, while vegetable farms are habitat killers...save a hawk, eat a hamburger.)

2) City animals are easy prey. They aren't used to dealing with predators, and are too dumb to run.

If you're a wild animal, and the nice humans are providing you an easy meal in one place while wiping out your native food sources in another, what would YOU do?