Mountain Lion Workshop
Ken, fellow grad student Steve, Gray and I piled into the Co-op Unit station wagon early on the morning of January 12. It was a good thing it was early. Monday morning traffic was starting to fill up I-25. All of a sudden the car lurched and started limping so we pulled over to the side of the road. The left rear tire had blown out! Before my father let me get my driver's license he insisted that I change a tire. I learned it wasn't difficult with the right tools but it was messy. I don't like messy! Fortunately between the three men in the car the tire was changed quickly and we were on our way again. We got to Stapleton Airport in plenty of time for our flight to Reno, Nevada.
The first evening we got settled into our hotel. I was delighted to discover that two rolls of nickels were included along with the room! I had never gambled before and looked forward to spending my nickels wisely.
The next morning while Gray was using his roll of nickels the 46 attendees, three of whom were women, were introduced. All eleven western states (Texas isn't exactly western in location but is in attitude) except Wyoming were represented. Utah Fish and Game declined to come but someone in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from Utah was there. Representatives from British Columbia and Saskatchewan (!?!) were also present. Most of the private, state and federal attendees had their way paid by their organizations but the three attending employees of the Idaho Fish and Game were there on their own dollar. I was thrilled to see the most famous mountain lion researcher, Maurice Hornocker, was in attendance.
We started off with a review from each state about what was happening with mountain lions. Arizona had been conducting a capture-recapture study like ours for five years. "Major prey species in the [150 square mile study] area are mule deer and cattle." Yikes! In California 12,461 lions had been bountied between 1907 and 1963. It became a big game animal in 1969 so a license was required to hunt it and in 1971 a four-year moratorium on lion hunting was established (then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the bill). Since then it has been a political hot potato but lion hunting pretty much hasn't been allowed since. California was conducting a radio-collar study of mountain lions. Colorado Fish and Game had declared the lion a big game species in 1965. Ken talked about our study in Colorado.
The Idaho Fish and Game folks stated "Idaho does not place much emphasis on mountain lion research." I guess since Hornocker and his students had done the seminal work on mountain lions there they figured that was enough. The Montana situation was interesting. "In 1971 the status of the lion in Montana was changed from predator to a big game animal. I don't know how the legislature goofed, but they overlooked establishing a licensing system when they made the change. So we had to persevere for two years with no fee permitted to take mountain lions." Almost 2000 residents applied for the free lion-hunting permit. The number of lions killed was going up each year so the game folks were getting a bit concerned that the lion population would start declining. They were trying to find some funding for some research but money was tight.
In Nevada the mountain lion was declared a big game animal in 1965. Hunting was allowed year round but not after dark and only with a shotgun, rifle or bow and arrow. At the time of the conference it had been changed to any time of day and a hunter could also kill a lion with a pistol. They had no limits on how many could be killed. That looked like bounty hunting without the payment to me. "In fact, from 1965 to 1968 I think we were just kind of baffled since the lion became a big game animal and we knew nothing about it and didn't have much control on harvest." In 1968 they started requiring tags on the lions killed and in 1970 a limit was set at one lion per person. They started trying to learn something about the animal in 1970 and had two studies going at the time of the conference.
The New Mexico Fish and Game man stated the problem most of the agencies were facing: "The New Mexico State Legislature in 1971 assigned the Game Commission responsibility for management of the mountain lion and made it a game animal. When they did this, they gave us an animal about which we knew nothing, and at the time not very many other people knew much about the lion either [Hornocker had published the first article about his research in 1969]. We were subjected to pressures from certain groups to close the season and from ranchers and sportsmen to open the season." What to do? They hired a biologist and a houndsman to look for tracks and lions for two years and came up with some estimates of the population. Now they faced another problem. No reports of lion attacks had been filed since 1915 until 1974. In the past two years there were four reports of lions attacking humans. "I suspect that unless these start to die down we're going to have trouble." Yep! A brief discussion was held about lawsuits. In Colorado the state pays for livestock depredations. Many states don't.
Oregon had just started a lion study. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explained most of their lions live along the Rio Grande. They were not considered to be either a game nor a protected species and could be killed by anyone at any time by any means. The state wasn't considering conducting any research.
Then there was Utah. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service man from Utah was asked about the role taken by Utah Fish and Game on lions he answered, "I sure don't know, ... A lot of permits are being sold." The Washington Game Department man prefaced his remarks: "I've been involved in a basic look at the cougar population for the last two years. I've worked alone generally, with a few local hound men in tagging and capturing animals, but we haven't gone a long way down the road. We tagged a few cougars, all of which are dead at this time." They asked the local houndsmen to not kill tagged animals, but you know how that goes! Although mandatory reporting was in place only about 45% of the dead mountain lions were reported. How did they figure that one out? Sport hunters don't kill them to eat the meat but for trophies so they take the carcasses to taxidermists who are licensed and legally have to keep records. It's easier to find a taxidermist than an unreported mountain lion carcass by itself.
British Columbia weighed in too. They had been doing some radio-collaring but hadn't gotten very far into the study. The next two Canadian entries were interesting. "Alberta was not represented. (Mail strike likely prevented notification on time). Saskatchewan: T---- R----, Provincial Fish and Game. (T-- is in graduate school, University of Nevada Reno). I don't think we have any mountain lion in Saskatchewan."
We were off and running! I was looking forward to learning all sorts of new things about mountain lions!
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| Lion density in Colorado: striped area highest |
The Idaho Fish and Game folks stated "Idaho does not place much emphasis on mountain lion research." I guess since Hornocker and his students had done the seminal work on mountain lions there they figured that was enough. The Montana situation was interesting. "In 1971 the status of the lion in Montana was changed from predator to a big game animal. I don't know how the legislature goofed, but they overlooked establishing a licensing system when they made the change. So we had to persevere for two years with no fee permitted to take mountain lions." Almost 2000 residents applied for the free lion-hunting permit. The number of lions killed was going up each year so the game folks were getting a bit concerned that the lion population would start declining. They were trying to find some funding for some research but money was tight.
In Nevada the mountain lion was declared a big game animal in 1965. Hunting was allowed year round but not after dark and only with a shotgun, rifle or bow and arrow. At the time of the conference it had been changed to any time of day and a hunter could also kill a lion with a pistol. They had no limits on how many could be killed. That looked like bounty hunting without the payment to me. "In fact, from 1965 to 1968 I think we were just kind of baffled since the lion became a big game animal and we knew nothing about it and didn't have much control on harvest." In 1968 they started requiring tags on the lions killed and in 1970 a limit was set at one lion per person. They started trying to learn something about the animal in 1970 and had two studies going at the time of the conference.
The New Mexico Fish and Game man stated the problem most of the agencies were facing: "The New Mexico State Legislature in 1971 assigned the Game Commission responsibility for management of the mountain lion and made it a game animal. When they did this, they gave us an animal about which we knew nothing, and at the time not very many other people knew much about the lion either [Hornocker had published the first article about his research in 1969]. We were subjected to pressures from certain groups to close the season and from ranchers and sportsmen to open the season." What to do? They hired a biologist and a houndsman to look for tracks and lions for two years and came up with some estimates of the population. Now they faced another problem. No reports of lion attacks had been filed since 1915 until 1974. In the past two years there were four reports of lions attacking humans. "I suspect that unless these start to die down we're going to have trouble." Yep! A brief discussion was held about lawsuits. In Colorado the state pays for livestock depredations. Many states don't.
Oregon had just started a lion study. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department explained most of their lions live along the Rio Grande. They were not considered to be either a game nor a protected species and could be killed by anyone at any time by any means. The state wasn't considering conducting any research.
Then there was Utah. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service man from Utah was asked about the role taken by Utah Fish and Game on lions he answered, "I sure don't know, ... A lot of permits are being sold." The Washington Game Department man prefaced his remarks: "I've been involved in a basic look at the cougar population for the last two years. I've worked alone generally, with a few local hound men in tagging and capturing animals, but we haven't gone a long way down the road. We tagged a few cougars, all of which are dead at this time." They asked the local houndsmen to not kill tagged animals, but you know how that goes! Although mandatory reporting was in place only about 45% of the dead mountain lions were reported. How did they figure that one out? Sport hunters don't kill them to eat the meat but for trophies so they take the carcasses to taxidermists who are licensed and legally have to keep records. It's easier to find a taxidermist than an unreported mountain lion carcass by itself.
British Columbia weighed in too. They had been doing some radio-collaring but hadn't gotten very far into the study. The next two Canadian entries were interesting. "Alberta was not represented. (Mail strike likely prevented notification on time). Saskatchewan: T---- R----, Provincial Fish and Game. (T-- is in graduate school, University of Nevada Reno). I don't think we have any mountain lion in Saskatchewan."
We were off and running! I was looking forward to learning all sorts of new things about mountain lions!
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