We found no difference in selection of agriculture, shrub-scrub, and primary roads between sexes.
Fire was applied to mature pine, young pine, mixed pine/hardwood, and shrub-scrub habitats.
Selection of shrub-scrub and primary roads did not differ (P > 0.05; Table 3) from expectation.
Bobcats were found to be closer to agriculture fields and shrub-scrub vegetation communities at both spatial scales.
At the annual area of use scale, female bobcats were closer to secondary roads, but farther from agriculture and shrub-scrub relative to males.
Bobcats selected mature pine and mature pine-hardwood stands managed by frequent fire, but also selected other habitat types such as agricultural fields and shrub-scrub.
Distance to agriculture was the most important landscape variable to female bobcats followed by hardwoods, mature pine, young pine, mixed pine-hardwoods, secondary roads, and shrub-scrub; distance to nearest primary road was least important (Table 3).
Our findings demonstrate the importance of vegetation diversity (e.g., mature pine, mixed pine/hardwoods, hardwoods, agriculture/food plots, shrub-scrub) for bobcats in a forested landscape managed by frequent (≤3 years) and small scale (< 40 ha) fires.
At this scale, distance to agriculture was the most important landscape variable to male bobcats followed by hardwoods, shrub-scrub, young pine, mature pine, secondary roads, and mixed pine-hardwoods; distance to nearest primary road was least important (Table 3).
Landscape scale predictive probability figures: mature pine (a), mixed pine-hardwoods (b), hardwoods (c), young pine (d), agriculture (e), shrub-scrub (f), primary roads (g), and secondary roads (h).
Based on standardized coefficient estimate rankings at the landscape scale, distance to primary road was the most important landscape variable to male bobcats followed by young pine, agriculture, mature pine, mixed pine-hardwood, and shrub-scrub; distance to nearest secondary road was least important (Table 2).
