LYNDEBOROUGH, N.H. (AP) — This past year's especially harsh winter has prompted the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department to rethink a proposal to bring back the state's bobcat trapping season.

In January, the state Fish and Game Commission voted to have the department draw up a proposal for a bobcat season, but those plans were put on hold by the harsh winter.

Fish and Game's Doug Whitefield says winters are hard on young bobcats.

The Telegraph reports the last time New Hampshire allowed bobcat trapping was 1989.

Since then the bobcat population has rebounded from estimates of fewer than 200. Now biologists estimate there are 1,400 animals in the fall and winter and up to 2,200 in the spring and summer.

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Information from: The Telegraph, http://www.nashuatelegraph.com