MOUNTAIN LION LADY: Chapter 10 (second half)

One of my heroes: Maurice Hornocker*

The first session was on the biology and life history of the mountain lion and was moderated by Maurice Hornocker. "I think we ought to recognize that we're dealing with one of the most adaptable mammals in the world. The mountain lion can live on animals the size of mice or elk." 

I'm sure you've heard the old saying "Behind every successful man is a strong woman". Almost every researcher echoed Hornockers sentiment that behind every successful lion researcher was an experienced houndsman. He started off by thanking the houndsman that had worked with him all nine years. The bulk of his introduction was a description of some of his discoveries in the time he had spent in the field. His lion population was an unhunted one but the terrain was much like our study area. 

One of the first things he noticed was that the lions depend on deer and elk only for their winter diet but their effect on their populations was negligible. Even the smaller lions tended to kill the big bulls and bucks. One radio-collared 94-lb female killed two big 6-point bull elk one winter and dragged them to hidden places where she could feed on them at her leisure. Bucks and bulls aren't as important as females in maintaining their populations since one male can cover lots of females. He found no wanton killing and wastage of the carcasses. He and his students documented cannibalism where a big male killed and ate two 50-lb kittens. The third one escaped and was killed by a hunter ten years later. They found evidence of coyote, beaver, raccoon and pack rat being eaten mostly during the summer.

Things became interesting when the discussion turned to geographical differences. In Arizona deer and elk were eaten more in the summer and cattle were also prey. There is little evidence that smaller animals are being taken maybe because they are more completely consumed. In Idaho during the summer lots of smaller animals make up the diet of most mountain lions, and even in areas where lots of cattle are grazed depredation of livestock by mountain lions isn't a problem.

The explanation by the Arizona researchers is that in their study areas cattle drop their calves year-round on a range that supports fewer cows/acre than northern states like Idaho so the cattle aren't as closely monitored. Of the cattle taken about 90% of them are under 200 pounds. "You've got a situation where extremely vulnerable animals are being dropped right in lion country day after day. These little calves are a lot easier to get than deer."

I was delighted to learn that our study record the year before of two animals caught in the about four months that we spent hunting was surpassed by the California study. They didn't capture a single lion in the first six months of hunting! The way our season was going it looked like we were going to capture more lions per day of hunting than any of the ongoing studies!

Another interesting point was the differences between a heavily hunted population and an unhunted one. "...it appears that when you have a population exploited pretty heavily it breaks down the complete social structure. Then you're going to get recovery pretty fast [if there is a nearby unhunted population]. Of course, if you kill all the resident females, then temporarily for short periods your production is certainly going to plunge. ... However, the thing you have to bear in mind is that you can't harvest all of the populations that heavily for a very long period of time, or they're all going to eventually drop. You're just not going to have those replacement animals in the form of transients." Something to keep in mind, though, is that if the resident males keep getting killed there will be more fighting for those territories.

Techniques and tranquilizer drugs were discussed then hunting regulations and harvest. In Arizona a livestock owner could kill bears and mountain lions at will by any means but was supposed to report his take. As far as the authorities were concerned every lion is a stock-killer so the rancher doesn't have to show his livestock were threatened. The Fish and Game Departments in most of the western states don't pay for depredations like Colorado does. 

Many presenters grumbled about lion depredations of livestock but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service man said some ranchers wanted to blame every loss on lions or bears. "We've even found cases where lightening had killed sheep and were reported as lion kills."

Because of the moratorium on lion hunting in California they started radio-collaring and moving lions that posed a threat to livestock. What they discovered was that the transplanted lions usually don't come back but they also don't stay where they were put.

Attacks on humans were then discussed. In British Columbia juvenile females were believed to be the more aggressive problem animals and they seemed to have more interactions with humans. "We have lions in subdivisions, summer home areas, etc., and they seem to be losing their fear of humans." Portent of things to come in Colorado in later years (read The Beast in the Garden by David Baron if you are interested). Other states reported occasional attacks. A later mountain lion workshops in 1991 would deal exclusively with lion-human interactions.

Mountain lion population modeling was discussed. A computer took up a whole room at the time so to many of the participants this was something new. It was stressed that the model is a tool and not the ultimate solution. "It performs no mysterious wonders, it only performs arithmetic chores."

The final topic was about the future needs of research on mountain lions. "They are many and complex. ... One need that must be identified and remembered during our deliberations is what I believe is our mutual goal, that is, the maintenance of a viable, self-sustaining lion population over the entire range for public benefits and uses that are compatible with the environment." A recommendation was made that a second workshop be held in 1978. This was the beginning of many mountain lion workshops. The twelfth one was held in 2017.


* My other hero is Knut Schmidt-Nielsen!