State wildlife officials are asking to remove the bobcat from Ohio's threatened species list.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has put the proposal before the Ohio Wildlife Council. Bobcats were placed on Ohio's first endangered species list 40 years ago. They were moved to the threatened list in 2012 because the number of verified sightings has been increasing. State officials say the bobcat was one of 71 species on Ohio's first endangered list in 1974. But the bobcat population began to rebound in the 1970s. The state says Ohio's bobcats are still a protected species and that they're not allowed to be hunted. The Ohio Wildlife Council is an eight-member board that approves all of the proposed rules and regulations of the Department of Natural Resources' wildlife division.