• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Faced with questions about how many bobcats live in South Dakota, a state panel Monday decided to shorten next winter's hunting and trapping season by two weeks in an effort to limit the number of cats that will be killed in the western part of the state.
• The Game, Fish and Parks Commission last month had proposed that no more than 600 bobcats could be shot or trapped in western South Dakota next winter.
• But on the advice of state wildlife biologists, the commission decided Monday to scrap the idea of a quota. The panel instead voted 5-2 to cut two weeks off the start of the season, a change biologists said would reduce both the overall number of cats killed and the number of females taken.
• The season will run from Dec. 26 through Feb. 15 next winter, starting two weeks later than last winter's season, which ran from Dec. 14 through Feb. 15.
• Commissioners have said they are worried that soaring prices for bobcat pelts could cause trappers to kill more of the elusive creatures next winter. The price for a prime pelt reached about $1,000 last winter.
• A limited season also will be held in five southeastern South Dakota counties, where each hunter or trapper would be limited to one bobcat in a season running from Dec. 26 through Jan. 18. The season in eastern South Dakota would be held only in Buffalo, Brule, Charles Mix, Bon Homme and Yankton counties.
• South Dakota's main bobcat population is in the western part of the state, and biologists are in the first year of a three-year study aimed at getting a better idea of how many cats roam the state.
• State wildlife biologist Keith Fisk said bobcats are so elusive it will be difficult to estimate the population. But he said biologists are worried because hunters and trappers in western South Dakota took slightly more females than males in recent years, an indication that a lot of pressure is being put on the population.
• "It's time to do something before we end up in a real bad scenario," Fisk told the commission.
• A quota system would have ended the season early once 600 bobcats had been taken, but Fisk said a quota might have increased the number of females taken by trappers trying to get cats before the limit was reached. Starting the season two weeks later than normal should reduce the number of females taken because many females seem to be trapped early in the season, he said.

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