One Cat, Many Landscapes: teacher key

Bobcats, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. How scientists have classified, counted and tracked the bobcat, and what the evidence says about its range, its ground and its future.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. How many subspecies did a 2017 review of genetic evidence recognize?
   • 12
   • 2 (answer)
   • 20
2. What do bobcats hybridize with?
   • Cougars
   • Coyotes
   • Canada lynx (answer)
3. What does hybridize mean in this book?
   • Interbreed with another species (answer)
   • Hunt at night
   • Climb trees
4. Bobcats were almost gone from Illinois but are now found statewide. What does this suggest?
   • A bobcat population can come back (answer)
   • Bobcats cannot live in Illinois
   • Bobcats only live in Canada
5. What is happening to the bobcat's range in Canada, as of November 2026?
   • It is shrinking southward
   • It is staying exactly the same
   • It is gradually expanding northward (answer)
6. What is the bobcat's conservation status as of November 2026?
   • Least Concern (answer)
   • Extinct in the wild
   • Unknown

Words

• subspecies: local kind
• hybridize: interbreed
• carnivore: meat eater
• boreal: northern forest
• fossil: ancient remains