Pam Fain was getting ready for work early one morning at her home in Ledyard, when she peered through the window of her sunroom and saw movement outside.

Fain, a 26-year resident of Avery Hill Road in Ledyard, has seen foxes, deer, rabbits and even coyotes at her home, but prior to that July 21 morning, she’d never seen a bobcat.

The bobcat, Fain says, was stalking a rabbit in her yard by a bush, but was unable to capture it.

“Thankfully I didn’t get to see the bunny takedown,” Fain joked. “But it was a good experience; the bobcat was just beautiful.”

Bobcats have become a common sight throughout Connecticut, according to state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection wildlife biologist Jason Hawley.

Hawley, the lead researcher of the Connecticut Bobcat Project, helped to collar and track the movements of about 150 bobcats in the state. The study was conducted to uncover how bobcats are distributed and to see how they’re adapting to habitats with different housing densities. While the researchers still are analyzing the results of the study, their preliminary findings suggest that bobcats are actually selecting for areas that are closer to humans.

While it's difficult to give an estimate as to how many bobcats are currently in the state, DEEP has recorded 2,389 bobcat sightings in 2022 thus far.

“One of the more surprising things we’re finding is that they’re doing quite well in highly suburbanized and even urban habitats. We found that these cats are actually choosing to live at closer distances to human structures, whether it’s by houses or industrial and commercial buildings,” Hawley said.

According to Hawley, one possible reason for this trend is that since bobcats are ambush predators, they need thick cover to hunt their prey. Since many suburban areas have bushy hedgerows, oftentimes filled with invasive plant species like multiflora rose, many neighborhoods have the cover that bobcats need to survive.

Additionally, suburban areas provide bobcats with easy access to food. Since many households have bird feeders or gardens that attract rabbits and squirrels, bobcats can more easily pick off their prey.

Reena Joseph, of Old Colchester Road in the Oakdale section of Montville, has been seeing bobcats by her house for the past five to seven years, especially near the bird feeder in her yard. In July 2021, Joseph captured a video of a bobcat playing with a squirrel it had just caught in her yard.

“The bobcat got a squirrel and it was just so fast,” Joseph said. “He was there for a half an hour just playing with it, throwing it up in the air and then he just sat down and started eating it.”

With an abundance of prey and effective cover, as Hawley explains, people have “unintentionally created the perfect bobcat habitat” in their own backyards.

Hawley also pointed out that even bobcats in more rural areas are choosing to be closer to human development. Again, he said brushy cover and easy access to prey are the biggest motivators.

People also are spotting bobcats more frequently because their population size continues to grow. While bobcats used to mainly reside in the northwestern part of the state, legal protections to curb unregulated hunting and an increase in forested areas have allowed bobcats to rebound in all eight of Connecticut’s counties, according to DEEP. Over the past 20 years, bobcats have started to recolonize — or populate again — all parts of the state and can now be found in nearly every town.

“They’ve really recovered well over that time period,” Hawley said. “I’d say that they’re just about as abundant in eastern Connecticut and even southeastern Connecticut as they are in western Connecticut.”

As bobcats become more common, some people may have concerns about the safety of their livestock and pets. While bobcats occasionally attack small dogs and cats, Hawley said coyotes are much more of a threat to their safety than bobcats. Chickens can sometimes be a bobcat target, and Hawley said fully enclosed chicken coops are the best defense. He said healthy bobcats pose almost no threat to humans.

Hawley offered a few simple tricks for those who are nervous about having bobcats nearby.

“If you’re not comfortable with the bobcat in your yard, make the bobcat uncomfortable,” he said. “You can yell, throw a tennis ball at it, or use an air horn to make it uncomfortable and that’s usually enough to get them moving on their way.”

However, since bobcats are relatively shy, secretive animals, Hawley encourages people to try and enjoy the moments when they're able to see the cats in their own backyards.

“We were very excited and joyful to see one,” said Joseph’s husband, Jeff Linkinhoker. “We just thought it was the coolest thing.”