Environment Report: That Time Bobcats Dined on San Diego Zoo Animals  

The last images the flamingo probably saw on that moonlit San Diego night were gnashing teeth below a pair of tufted ears.  

Surveillance footage captured images of a wild bobcat with a flamingo at facilities owned by the San Diego Zoo in the early morning hours of Dec. 12, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection report. The almost 5-year-old flamingo was later found dead with evidence it’d been chewed on by one of North America’s most prolific big, wild cats.  

But the bobcats would be back for more. They had learned the corralled animals at this part of the San Diego Zoo complex were irresistible snacks.  

On Dec. 16, personnel found a mauled 9-year-old magpie goose inside its zoo habitat. The necropsy – an animal autopsy – showed something had preyed on it, too. The zoo removed all the other birds from the magpie’s habitat.  

Alexandra Andricos, a veterinary medical officer with USDA, noted that the zoo attempted to better secure both bird habitats afterward. But she also warned in her Feb. 20 report that bird facilities should be constructed so they’re “structurally sound.”

“They must be kept in good repair, protect the birds from injury, and restrict other animals from entering that may negatively affect their welfare,” Andricos wrote.  

Then, on Dec. 30, bobcats struck again. The victim this time? One of those cute, tiny little antelope from western-central Africa: the red-flank duiker. An almost 7-year-old female duiker was found dead in her outdoor habitat.  

The stubborn girl had been hiding under a bridge in her exhibit and refused to return to her “night quarters,” the report read. Zookeepers couldn’t bring her in “due to human safety factors.”   

Traumatic lesions on her body and sightings of scavenging bobcats in the area led everyone to believe the duiker was dinner.  

Andricos wrote that the zoo took steps to protect its animals from the bobcats in response to the killings.  

For example, the zoo “increased deterrents” and met with state wildlife officials to try to expedite permits to trap and relocate bobcats. The zoo also formed a “wildlife coexistence work group.”  

But it’s the zoo’s responsibility to ensure its animal housing facilities protect animals from injury, harm and death, Andricos wrote. 

I repeatedly reached out to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to talk about these cases but didn’t hear back. I have many questions like: What’s a bobcat “deterrent?” How did the zoo proceed to trap and relocate bobcats? Were these bird habitats in bad shape and what did the zoo do to fix them up? 

It’s not clear from the report whether the deaths occurred at the city zoo in Balboa Park or the Safari Park in Escondido. I’m inclined to think the latter since red-flank duikers, magpie geese and flamingos are listed on the Safari Park website, not the city zoo website. Plus the Safari Park is in a more rural space where bobcats seem more likely to roam. 

Californians Could Hunt Bobcats Until Recently 

The image of bobcats breaking into the zoo sent me on a wild Google dive. Are they starving? Are they endangered? 

No, in fact bobcats are doing quite well – maybe too well, according to some. Many of San Diego’s resident bobcats are adept city dwellers. They are hunters and scavengers who can jump twelve feet and scale telephone poles. 

They have incredible range, found in pretty much every U.S. state and into Mexico. They’re not endangered in the U.S., but they are in Mexico – and because it’s so difficult to tell them apart, the animal is listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.  

Until recently, Californians could hunt them for sport.  

Gov. Gavin Newsom banned bobcat hunting in 2019 as part of a package of bills “fighting animal cruelty.”  

The legislation was part of a wider effort to prohibit the sale and manufacture of new fur products in California. A trapper could fetch about $191 for a bobcat hide in 2015, according to a state report.  

Unsurprisingly, pro-hunting advocacy groups are upset. California Waterfowl, for instance, called the law an “assault on a century-old successful North American model of wildlife conservation.” Some hunters said their farewell to the sport by posting photos of dead bobcats online. 

Historical bobcat harvest or hunting data on the state Department of Fish and Wildlife website shows the number kills dropped significantly anyway. In 1979, hunters and trappers took 14,200 bobcats. In the 2018-2019 season, the last season before the ban began, hunters and trappers took only 328 bobcats.  

California may reinstate bobcat hunting this year. That depends on the outcome of a statewide bobcat conservation and management plan which was supposedly published in January. (I could not find a copy of that plan and the state has yet to get back to me.)  

Researchers spent a year tracking bobcats across the state to help decide what California should do about the hunting ban. Stay tuned.  

In Other News  

• Land use is one of the biggest environmental issues anywhere but especially in California. Our Will Huntsberry mapped where homes are – and more importantly, are not – being built in San Diego. (Voice of San Diego) 

• Enjoying the nice mild summer? Look out. Extreme heat coming for the county’s backcountry and deserts this week. (Union-Tribune) 

• Joe LaCava said he’d end SeaWorld fireworks a year ago. But Mission Bay is still booming. (Voice of San Diego) 

• The San Diego County Water Authority said bye bye to a bigtime law firm that’s represented their interests in Los Angeles and beyond for years. (Note: This one is only for Voice members.) 

• Thank you Philip Salata at inewsource for calling out that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency didn’t promise to do anything new during Administrator Lee Zeldin’s announcement a few weeks ago. I noticed the project list was pretty much the same since November of 2021 when the EPA under President Joe Biden said it would do all those same things.  

• Barrio Logan is home to a new lithium iron phosphate Tesla battery storage facility that’ll store enough power for 200,000 homes. The company, Arevon, will open a larger facility in Poway.  (Union-Tribune) 

• The San Diego City Council publicly backed 10 bills circulating in the state legislature aimed at lowering utility bills. (Union-Tribune)  

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