Bobcats, coyotes and foxes are quietly reclaiming northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Most nights, they’re just beyond the porch light.
Connor Bontjes and a co-worker were driving near Byron, Ill., close to where Ash and German Church roads meet, when something up ahead made him look twice.
“At first, I thought, ‘That’s a big cat,’” says Bontjes, a restoration ecologist and capital development manager for the Byron Forest Preserve District. “The closer we got, I said, ‘No, that’s a bobcat.’”…