Context <p>Animal home ranges result from decisions made in response to environmental conditions and may expand or shift in fragmented landscapes where movement is more energetically costly. Although many mesocarnivores have recolonized fragmented agricultural areas of the central United States following extirpations, how they adjust movement to these altered landscapes remains unclear.</p> Objectives <p>We aimed to investigate the landscape and biological drivers of bobcat (<i>Lynx rufus</i>) home range size and movement and examine how movement patterns shape space use across two landscapes with differing levels of habitat fragmentation.</p> Methods <p>We GPS-collared 49 bobcats in northern and southern Illinois, USA, during 2022–2024, and analyzed bi-annual and annual home range size, shape, stability, and movement activity. We modeled relationships between home range characteristics, movement metrics, and habitat composition and fragmentation variables.</p> Results <p>Bobcats in the more fragmented northern landscape maintained larger home ranges than those in the southern landscape. Annual home range size was best predicted by proportion of forest, with larger home ranges containing less forest. Larger home ranges correlated with increased daily movement and lower home range stability, but not with movement speed or range shape. Male bobcats moved farther daily than females, and movement speed increased slightly during the winter/spring.</p> Conclusions <p>Increased daily and monthly movement were the mechanisms behind larger home ranges, and those containing less forest were larger. These results emphasize the role of habitat availability over individual traits in shaping movement and support conserving forested land to reduce energetic costs and mortality risk in fragmented landscapes.</p>