Mountain Lions and Deer
Research
Camera-trap study provides photographic evidence of pumas' ecological impact January 23, 2023 Phys.org
... the analysis revealed that wherever pumas were present, coyotes were rarely seen... the study strongly suggests that coyotes do not replace the apex predator in an ecosystem that lacks pumas... Reported in the journal Ecosphere ...
Some Details From Year 2 Of Blues Elk Calf Mortality Study Out December 11, 2021 Washington, Northwest Sportsman Magazine
... as of early December, 23 calves were still “on the air” and that 48 other collared calves had died, with 31 of the confirmed 37 predator mortalities attributed to the big cats – 83 percent... State managers say 20 to 30 percent of elk calves need to survive to their first year for a herd just to hold steady...
The Demographic Changes and Fluctuations in a Black-tailed Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) Population on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia: Are They Related to Predation? November, Canadian Wildlife Biology and Mangement
... The wolf index was associated with changes in deer growth and recruitment rates during the 1st deer population fluctuation, and both wolf and cougar indices were related to growth rates during the 2nd fluctuation. Dynamic interactions between deer and their predators may have contributed to the 1st and 2nd deer population fluctuations, while winter severity and hunting appeared to have less effect ...
Predator, prey studies intersect August 19, 2021 Colorado, Montrose Daily Press
... research studies by CPW of mountain lions on the Front Range showed that 66 percent of lion kills were of mule deer, with over half of those being fawns. On average, a mountain lion could consume a deer a week...
By avoiding pumas, deer are drastically changing the vegetation in their environments March 25, 2021 California, Massive Science
...New research published in Ecosphere has found that black-tailed deer in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California are spending more time in the forest areas closer to human habitation... not due to tastier or better quality plants ...because pumas are afraid of the nearby humans and so they don’t like going into those areas...
Studying mountain lions in North Dakota January 12, 2021 INFORUM
... of the 12 species eaten by mountain lions, 77% were deer... mountain lions in the badlands have a 42-48% survival rate. “That’s about 30% lower than needed to sustain the current population of this size ..,
Light pollution alters predator-prey interactions between cougars and mule deer in western US October 19, 2020 Michigan, ScienceBlog
... Data from the study provides support for both the predator shield and ecological trap hypotheses, according to the researchers. At certain times and locations within the wildland-urban interface, there is simply too much artificial light and/or human activity for cougars, creating a protective shield for deer... cougars are able to successfully hunt within the wildland-urban interface by carefully selecting the darkest spots on the landscape to make their kill ...
Colorado wildlife agency’s past research raises questions about mountain lion hunting levels May 24, 2020 Denver Post
... CPW biologists determined, from research done between 2004 and 2014 for the purpose of guiding agency decision-making, that wildlife managers cannot let hunters kill more than 12% of lions a year without triggering a decline, according to a report summarizing results and preliminary analysis...
Survival and Cause-Specific Mortality of Neonate Elk in a Unique Predator Environment in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, USA BD Simpson, JB Smith, JA Jenks - The American Midland Naturalist, 2020
... We captured and fit 71 calves ≤10 d of age with expandable radiocollars ... The overall probability a calf survived to 12 mo of age was 0.75 (95% CI = 0.61–0.84). Cougar (Puma concolor) predation accounted for 81% of mortalities; remaining mortalities were from starvation (6.3%, n = 1) and unknown causes (6.3%, n = 1)...
The Elephant in the room: What can we learn from California regarding the use of sport hunting of pumas (Puma concolor) as a management tool? John W. Laundré, Christopher Papouchis February 13, 2020 PlosOne
... Our results indicated, respectively, that relative to the 10 states where puma are hunted, California had 1) similar puma densities, 2) the 3rd lowest per capita problematic puma-human encounters, 3) similar per capita loss of cattle (P = 0.13) and a significantly lower (t = 5.7, P < 0.001) per capita loss of sheep, and 4) similar average deer densities while changes in annual deer populations correlated with changes in other states (F = 95.4, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.68). In sum, our analysis of the records obtained from state and federal wildlife agencies found no evidence that sport hunting of pumas has produced the management outcomes sought by wildlife managers aside from providing a sport hunting opportunity...
South Dakota Mountain Lion Management Plan 2019 - 2029
... The total 2007/08 pre-hunt mountain lion population estimate was 256 (106 females, 45 males, 106 kittens)... The 2017/18 preseason population estimate for the Black Hills was approximately 532 total mountain lions ...
...
How did the extinction of saber-toothed cats impact other mammals? October 3, 2019 Phys.org
... Our study shows that the extinction of the large-bodied mammals didn't result merely in a loss of biodiversity ... One pattern we can confidently expect is for common species to become even more common and wide-ranging (think raccoons, opossums, deer, coyotes)...
Effects of urbanization on cougar foraging ecology along the wildland–urban gradient of western Washington CW Robins, BN Kertson, JR Faulkner, AJ Wirsing - Ecosphere, 2019
... the odds of cougar predation on synanthropic prey did increase with urbanization. The odds of ungulate predation, however, remained relatively consistent across the wildland–urban gradient despite cougar use of black‐tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) and elk (Cervus canadensis) increasing over time...
How to avoid and protect mountain lions in Sonoma County August 4, 2019 California, Sonoma Index-Tribune
...the preferred meal of hungry lions is deer. The county study shows that deer account for more than 75% of what they eat. Lions are also opportunist predators, which means if they can’t take deer, they will take skunks, racoons, turkeys and other small animals...
Age‐specific foraging strategies among pumas, and its implications for aiding ungulate populations through carnivore control LM Elbroch, H Quigley - Conservation Science and Practice, 2019
... the older the animal, the larger the prey it specialized upon. Our provocative results suggest that the current controversial strategy of increasing puma culling to aid mule deer, as currently underway in Colorado, may in fact exacerbate problems for mule deer by changing the age‐structure of the puma population to predominantly younger animals that are more likely to hunt deer over elk ...
Seasonal spatial ecology of mountain lions (Puma concolor) in the central Sierra Nevada
JA Dellinger, ER Loft, RC Bertram, DL Neal… - Western North American …, 2018
...Mountain lions (Puma concolor) were captured and radio-collared in the Sierra National Forest between 1983 and 1992 to study the species’ seasonal spatial patterns in a location where migratory mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are its primary prey. Some mountain lions displayed seasonal migratory shifts in elevation that mirrored those of their migratory prey; others resided at lower elevations year-round. Home range size for all mountain lions was larger in summer (x– = 231 km2) than in winter (x– = 110 km2), whether or not an individual exhibited seasonal migratory shifts in elevation...
The biological basis for deer hunting October 13, 2019 West Virginia, The Register-Herald
... In 1970, Graeme Caughley suggested that the mule deer population explosion on the Kaibab Plateau was due more to the recovery of the range than to the disappearance of predators. It turns out that while predators were being removed from the area, so were domestic livestock. At least 200,000 sheep and 20,000 cattle were removed at the same time the predators were exterminated. Caughley argued that deer flourished not because predators disappeared, but because the elimination of domestic grazers provided a virtually unlimited food supply for deer...
New Montana mountain lion strategy out for review, comment October 14, 2018 Independent Record
... Mountain lion kill rates vary by location and ecological system, but are generally reported as one kill per seven days in deer dominated systems and one kill per 10 days in systems where elk are also available ... [read the plan]
USU scientists studied cougars from above using NASA satellites August 9, 2018 Utah, Standard-Examiner
... Mountain lions generally eat just under one ungulate a week, preying on an average of 38 deer each year according to a study from 2010... mountains and foothills ...there's four to five mountain lions and 1,300 to 1,900 deer per 100 square miles... desert habitats that support the animals have sparser populations. Per 100 square miles in those areas, there's two mountain lions and around 750 deer at best. ...
State cougar plan will incorporate new monitoring, computer models December 11, 2016 Montana, The Missoulian
... The new way to estimate the mountain lion populations in these larger regions is based on a study in the Bitterroot Valley. FWP biologist Kelly Proffitt was the lead author of a 2015 peer-reviewed article about the study ...
Demographics of mule deer puma prey in south-central New Mexico TW Perry, NT Vogt, Department of Biology, Furman University, Greenville, SC
...Our data suggest that pumas select mid to late age classes (specifically 6 year olds) disproportionately to their availability (χ2 = 62.745, d.f. = 10, P <0.001). This trend is supported by the data of Logan and Sweanor (χ2 = 515.92, d.f. = 10, P < 0.001). Pumas have a dramatically reduced impact on deer population growth as a result of selecting age classes with lower reproductive value. Understanding the prey selectivity of pumas gives insight into their effects on prey population dynamics and should be considered by game managers...
Effects of male targeted harvest regimes on prey switching by female mountain lions: Implications for apparent competition on declining secondary prey JR Keehner, RB Wielgus, AM Keehner - Biological Conservation, 2015
... Harvest regimes which target male carnivores are now widely accepted to result in increased sexually selected infanticide (SSI) because of rapid male turnover and immigration by non-sire males, and sexually segregated habitat use because of female avoidance of infanticidal males ... only females with cubs selected for declining mule deer at high elevations and only during summer, when kittens were vulnerable to infanticide — other sex and reproductive classes selected for abundant increasing white-tailed deer at low elevations. We suggest that harvest regimes which focus on male harvest to reduce predation on declining secondary prey could be causing increased predation on declining secondary prey elsewhere.
Ecologists wondering where the lions, and other top predators, are September 3, 2015 Science Daily
... New law of nature: more crowding leads to fewer offspring ... Physiologists have long known that the speed of growth declines with size ... in the lushest ecosystems, no matter where they are in the world, the ratio of predators to their prey is greatly reduced. This is because with greater crowding, prey species have fewer offspring for every individual...
The predator-prey power law: Biomass scaling across terrestrial and aquatic biomes September 4, 2015, Science, Ian A. Hatton, Kevin S. McCann, John M. Fryxell, T. Jonathan Davies, Matteo Smerlak, Anthony R. E. Sinclair, Michel Loreau
... . We show a robust scaling law that emerges uniquely at the level of whole ecosystems and is conserved across terrestrial and aquatic biomes worldwide. This pattern describes the changing structure and productivity of the predator-prey biomass pyramid, which represents the biomass of communities at different levels of the food chain. Scaling exponents of the relation between predator versus prey biomass and community production versus biomass are often near ¾, which indicates that very different communities of species exhibit similar high-level structure and function...
Study prompts Washington to revamp cougar hunting September 26, 2012 Summit County Citizens Voice
... Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same... Based on the the 13-year study, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing a new cougar management plan based on equilibrium management. Hunters will remove no more than the surplus of animals that would be generated through natural reproduction ... the 13-year study headed by Rob Wielgus, director of WSU’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab ...
Effects of male trophy hunting on female carnivore population growth and persistence RB Wielgus, DE Morrison, HS Cooley, B Maletzke - Biological Conservation, 2013
... Light hunting of males (no net male immigration) decreased female population growth in an additive manner and heavy hunting of males (increased net male immigration) decreased female population growth in a depensatory manner. We reject the compensatory mortality hypothesis, and suggest that hunting of male carnivores has a negative additive or depensatory effect on female population growth depending on the intensity of male mortality. We recommend that hunting of polygnous carnivores not exceed their intrinsic growth rates to forestall excessive compensatory male immigration and infanticide. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife instituted a new “equilibrium” hunting management plan (hunting mortality < 14%/year) for cougars in 2013 based on our findings and recommendations.
Seasonal Foraging Ecology of Non-Migratory Cougars in a System with Migrating Prey
L. Mark Elbroch, Patrick E. Lendrum, Jesse Newby, Howard Quigley, Derek Craighead December, 2013
... We tested for seasonal differences in cougar (Puma concolor) foraging behaviors in the Southern Yellowstone Ecosystem, a multi-prey system in which ungulate prey migrate, and cougars do not. We recorded 411 winter prey and 239 summer prey killed by 28 female and 10 male cougars, and an additional 37 prey items by unmarked cougars. Deer composed 42.4% of summer cougar diets but only 7.2% of winter diets. Males and females, however, selected different proportions of different prey; male cougars selected more elk (Cervus elaphus) and moose (Alces alces) than females, while females killed greater proportions of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and small prey than males. ... Elk and deer migrations may also be sustaining stationary cougar populations and creating apparent competition scenarios that result in higher predation rates on migratory bighorn sheep in winter and pronghorn in summer
Good Nutrition Limits the Effect of Mountain Lion and Coyote Predation
Effect of Enhanced Nutrition on Mule Deer Population Rate of Change (July 2009) Wildlife Monographs, Volume 172, Issue 1, pages 1–28 Chad J. Bishop, (Colorado Division of Wildlife), Gary C. White, David J. Freddy, Bruce E. Watkins, Thomas R. Stephenson
ABSTRACT ... By manipulating nutrition and leaving natural predation unaltered, we determined whether habitat quality was ultimately a critical factor limiting the deer population... Our results demonstrate that observed coyote predation, by itself, is not useful for evaluating whether coyotes are negatively impacting a deer population. Our results also indicate that mountain lions may select for deer in poorer condition under some circumstances, suggesting that mountain lion predation may not always be an additive source of mortality. Disease mortality rates of adult females did not decline in response to enhanced nutrition. Winter-range habitat quality was a limiting factor of the Uncompahgre Plateau mule deer population...
Spatial Ecology of Coyotes and Cougars: Understanding the Influence of Multiple Prey on the Spatial Interactions of Two Predators [pdf] PJ Mahoney - 2017 Utah
... coyotes selected for sites with the highest densities of lagomorphs while avoiding areas with a high probability of encountering cougars. Coyotes did not select for mule deer fawning sites, although individual coyotes that occupied resource-poor home ranges were more likely to do so. Cougars strongly selected for mule deer high use areas throughout much of the year, only switching to elk (Cervus elaphus) during the cougar harvest season (i.e., winter)...
Predators and Prey—A Case of Imbalance Mountain Lions and the North Kings Deer Herd From the June 1989 issue of "Forest Research West"
... The focus of the study was the North Kings deer here, a population of California mule deer. This herd declined from an estimated 17,000 animals in 1950 to about 2,000 animals in 1988. While the initiation of the decline was probably a result of overpopulation in the 1940s and 1950s, the lack of recovery seems to be related to heavy predation... The research team captured 96 newborn fawns and equipped them with radio collars over a 7-year period from 1979 to 1985... During the 7 years of the study, fawn survival ranged from 13% to 42% and averaged 38%. Two percent were killed in accidents, 9% died from disease or birth defects, and predators were responsible for the deaths of 51% of the fawns. Of those taken by predators 3% were killed by bobcats, 22% by bears, 27% by coyotes, and 49% by mountain lions... The bottom line is that in the study area, mountain lions appear to be controlling an already depressed deer herd, and they are apparently not benefiting the population by taking only the weak and old.
Top-down versus bottom-up forcing: evidence from mountain lions and
mule deer Becky M. Pierce, Vernon C Bleich, Kevin L. Monteith, and R. Terry Bowyer
Journal of Mammalogy, 93(4):977–988, 2012
Abstract: We studied mountain lions (Puma concolor) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) inhabiting a Great Basin ecosystem in Round Valley, California, to make inferences concerning predator–prey dynamics... For mule deer, bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) in diets, per capita availability of bitterbrush, kidney fat indexes, fetal rates (young per adult female), fetal weights, and survivorship of adults and young indicated that the period of decline was typical of a deer population near or above the
carrying capacity (K) of its environment. Numbers of mountain lions also declined, but with a long time lag... predation, mostly by mountain lions, was likely additive during the period of increase and thus, top-down forcing slowed but did not prevent population growth of mule deer. These outcomes indicate that resource availability (bottom-up processes) has an ever-present effect on dynamics of herbivore populations, but that the relationship can be altered by top-down effects. Indeed, top-down and bottom-up forces can act on populations simultaneously and, thus, should not be viewed as a stark dichotomy.
TD Bartnick ... Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2013
We examined predation habits of cougars (Puma concolor (L., 1771)) following the recent recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus L., 1758) in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem... We predicted that as wolves recolonized their former range, competitive exclusion would compel cougars to cede portions of niche space occupied in the absence of wolves... As wolf numbers increased and the mean distance between wolf pack activity centers and cougar predation sites decreased, cougars made kills at higher elevations on more north-facing slopes during summer and in more rugged areas during winter. In addition, cougars preyed on a higher proportion of mule deer ... consistent with predictions of exploitative competition with wolves. Observed changes in predation characteristics reflect differences in predation strategy between cougars and wolves, given that wolves are coursing predators and cougars are ambush predators...
Metrics of predation: perls of predator-prey ratios RT Bowyer ...Acta Theriologica, 2013
We developed an original modeling approach using program Stella® to investigate the usefulness of predator–prey ratios (PPRs) for interpreting top-down and bottom-up forcing on moose ... The resulting patterns of PPRs were impossible to disentangle from one another, and did not provide reliable insights into whether top-down or bottom-forcing occurred, especially over short time spans where critical decisions related to management of moose and wolves might be necessary ... We provide an alternative method to using PPRs or other predation metrics for determining whether top-down or bottom-up forcing is occurring by adopting an approach based on the physical condition and life-history characteristics of prey....
Is anthropogenic cougar mortality compensated by changes in natural mortality in Utah? Insight from long-term studies ML Wolfe, DN Koons, DC Stoner, P Terletzky, EM Gese… - Biological Conservation, 2015
... If rates of human exploitation exceed natural mortality, however, such actions will ‘add’ to overall mortality and could imperil the sustainability of such actions. We applied competing risk analyses to 16 years of data for heavily harvested and semi-protected cougar populations in Utah to test the additive and compensatory mortality hypotheses, while accounting for parameter uncertainty... we could not reject the additive mortality hypothesis when uncertainty in parameter estimates was accounted for. In the semi-protected population, however, we detected evidence for partial compensation of increased anthropogenic exploitation via reductions in natural mortality. As may be common in carnivore studies, we found that ignoring uncertainty in estimates of cause-specific mortality systematically led to biased conclusions regarding additive and compensatory mortality hypotheses...
"State game agencies have estimated mountain lion populations in the United States to be between 20,000 and 40,000 lions." MountainLion.Org
News
States With Most Mountain Lions in US 2023: Where To Find Them? April 28, 2023
St Lucia News Online
... The population estimates provided below [click on link] are sourced from state government websites and other authoritative sources. These figures pertain to breeding Mountain Lion populations, but some sightings are mentioned. To the best of our knowledge, this information is accurate...
'A noticeable uptick': Cougar sightings increasing in Missouri April 11, 2022 Missouri, YAHOO!News
... nine confirmed mountain lion sightings in Missouri between January 3 and March 7, nearly doubling the state's entire 2022 total... no evidence of an established population ...
Group calls for Cox to veto Utah bill that opens door for year-round cougar hunting March 7, 2023 Utah, Deseret News
... HB469 ... removes the state's current program so that anyone with a hunting license can harvest cougars throughout the year without a tag... the Western Wildlife Conservancy are calling on Cox to veto the bill over the year-round cougar provision...
Don’t blame cougars for the fact that deer are losing habitat to humans. March 6, 2023 Utah, The Salt Lake Tribune -Opinion
... Utah consistently kills more cougars each year than almost every other state. The total sport kill starting with season 2015-16 through season 21-22 steadily rose: 372, 430, 452, 532, 596, 667, 753... If there are roughly 2,500 cougars in Utah, as estimated by DWR, this means that Utah is now killing one third of its cougar population each year..,
New bill brings worries over open season on hunting Utah cougars March 3, 2023 Utah, Fox 13
... Faith Heaton Jolley with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says ... “Cougars are the biggest predator of mule deer, and so in areas where we had enacted some of our predator management plans, we actually had seen an increase in the adult does and other deer in those areas.” ...
Nebraska mountain lion now looking for a name after 700-mile journey February 17, 2023 York News-Times
... the big cat made its way from the scenic Niobrara River valley all the way to suburban Springfield, Illinois, according to the GPS tracker that Nebraska Game and Parks had tagged it with a year prior ..,
Mule Deer Fights Off A Mountain Lion In Wild Vintage Footage February 17, 2023 California, Whiskey Riff
... an estimate of 4,000 to 6,000 ... mountain lions ...according to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. ... Each mountain lion eats around 48 “deer sized animals” per year, which puts the total number of deer consumed by mountain lions ... at around 192,000 to 288,000 per year...
Bill Allowing Hounds To Chase Mountain Lions Gets OK From Wyoming House February 17, 2023 Wyoming, Cowboy State Daily
... "Mountain lions are prolific throughout Wyoming, and they’ve taken a toll on livestock and big game animals, particularly mule deer," [ Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland]
Child hospitalized after mountain lion attack February 1, 2023 California, KTNV
... A child was rushed to a trauma center after a mountain lion attack in Northern California, authorities said. According to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, the attack happened Tuesday in an unincorporated part of the county ...
Mountain lions are a vital part of Utah's ecosystem; their conservation is a collaborative effort January 29, 2023, KSL
... current estimates vary, there could be as many as 30,000 mountain lions in the U.S. ... With recent droughts, the mule deer population has been declining, which has led to increased hunting limits for mountain lions. DeBloois said the state estimates approximately 2,300 mountain lions call Utah home, though, that number can never be decisively determined...
2 mountain lions killed in Colorado after killing, injuring dogs January 26, 2023 The Coloradoan
... Denver Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe's Instagram post last week telling how he killed a large mountain lion that was "wreaking havoc" on pets in the mountain community of Grant...
California Mountain Lion Slaughters 27 Lambs but Did Not Eat a Single One January 13, 2023 Newsweek
... A farmer living in Lower Lake, in Lake County, noticed the dead lambs last week and notified the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The lion had killed the livestock but had not eaten them...
Video shows mountain lion drag border collie from Northern California home December 8, 2022 KTLA
... The dog was eventually rescued and survived... But the cougar remained outside the house and continued staring through the glass door for several hours...
California Department of Fish and Wildlife and National Park Service Team Up to Evaluate P-22 December 8, 2022 CDFW News
... P-22 has been reported near human dwellings close to his habitat in Griffith Park. Reports include sightings, video camera recordings and physical encounters with the lion. P-22 is a remarkably old cat in the wild and, after being deemed responsible for killing a leashed pet last month, may be exhibiting signs of distress..,
14-year-old attacked by mountain lion, wildlife officials say November 17, 2022 Nevada, 1011Now
... a 14-year-old girl was the victim in the attack on Nov. 10 in the foothills of south Reno...
In Washington State, Hunters May No Longer Be “Necessary to Manage Wildlife” November 7, 2022 Outdoor Life
... this year hunters aren’t seeing nearly as many elk or pine-ridge whitetails as usual... They mostly blame wolves that have moved into this rural corner of Washington over the past decade and the increasing number of cougars ... Locals cite the ambush of a 9-year-old girl playing hide-and-seek [cougar] ...
Too many predators, not enough prey October 20, 2022 Washington, Cheney Free Press
... In ... the northeast corner of the state ... cougars and wolves kill almost 20,000 deer a year. Hunters last year killed an additional 3,600 ... That does not include additional loss by bear, coyote, bobcat, automobile or other mortalities. Fish and Wildlife officials estimate the year started with 30,000 whitetail deer ...
USAG Presidio of Monterey advises wildlife caution October 14, 2022 California, U.S. Army
... Of the 22 documented mountain lion attacks in California since 1986, half of them have been on children ages 10 and younger, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife statistics...
Park closed after mountain lion attacks 7-year-old boy September 29, 2022 California, WSB-TV
... The 7-year-old boy and his father had been walking up stairs in Pico Canyon Park on Monday evening when a mountain lion came up from behind them and bit the boy in the buttock ...
Cougar videos, sightings in Utah, the West increase with growth, drought June 5, 2022 KSL
... with the drought, deer and elk populations are suffering, and DeBloois said mountain lions could be next. "We've seen some declines in mule deer numbers that we think (are) drought-related," he said. "You do expect to eventually see a decrease in mountain lion numbers that's tied to that, but there can be quite a lag. It could be several years." ...
Cougar mauls 9-year-old at church camp in Washington state May 31, 2022 ABC News
...The ambush predator eats deer and smaller animals. While cougars generally avoid people, attacks on humans have increased in North America as more people enter cougar habitat...
Cougars become unlimited hunting game in Utah September 7, 2021 Utah, KSL Radio
... The Wildlife Board approved a plan to increase quotas in many hunting areas and lift quotas on cougars altogether in others. Additionally, officials are making cougars year-round game in hopes of increasing numbers of mule deer and bighorn sheep...
Flurry of mountain lion sightings in Petaluma neighborhoods July 1, 2021 California, KTVU San Francisco
... They may be wandering further than usual due to the drought and a shrinking deer population... "It's pretty unusual for them to show themselves, they're pretty sneaky,"...
Declining Vancouver Island cougar populations linked to wolves March 1, 2021 British Columbia, lakecowichangazette
... deer populations on Vancouver Island were spiking, but began to decline through the ‘90s, around the same time wolves began to recolonize the land... this factor could have also impacted cougar density on the Island, as they had less to eat, and wolves will tend to eat some cougar cubs...
Local houndsmen say Fish and Game has declared war on mountain lions with plan to eliminate quotas statewide February 26, 2021 Idaho, Idaho State Journal
... A group of Southeast Idaho houndsmen are upset with a proposal from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to remove all statewide mountain lion harvest quotas, saying the plan amounts to the agency declaring war on the species....
Wildlife leaders enact some changes, propose for more cougar hunt opportunities in Utah July 16, 2020 Utah, KSL.com
... a law passed by state legislators earlier this year. The law change allows a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources director to directly take steps to reduce predator populations when big game populations dip below the state’s management objectives... to protect mule deer ...
Wildlife leaders enact some changes, propose for more cougar hunt opportunities in Utah July 16, 2020 Utah, KSL.com
... a law passed by state legislators earlier this year. The law change allows a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources director to directly take steps to reduce predator populations when big game populations dip below the state’s management objectives... to protect mule deer ...
Washington's cougar hunting increase not aggressive enough June 16, 2020 The Spokesman-Review
... Washington’s elk and deer numbers have plummeted in the last 24 years ... State biologists interviewed off the record for this article state that Washington deer and elk are failing massively due to our unwillingness to control predators...
Rep. Joel Kretz: Increased cougar hunting step in right direction, more needs to be done May 14, 2020 Washington, The Spokesman-Review
... The game wardens in rural northeast Washington have seen an explosion of problem cougar/human encounters. One officer told us that over the last few years his time spent dealing with cougar calls went from around 3-6% a few years ago up to around 25-30% last year! ...
State proposes “special management area” for local mountain lions March 20, 2020 Colorado, The Aspen Times
... “Reports 10 years ago were occasional sightings, but sightings are the norm now,” said CPW district wildlife manager Matt Yamashita. “Pets and livestock are being either injured or attacked on a fairly routine basis, and on the more serious side of things, we’re getting reports of attacks on people.” ...
Cougar harvest objectives increased to help deer populations February 13, 2020 Utah, Daily Herald
... “Cougar populations don’t immediately decline when deer populations do, and in some cases, cougar populations may be maintained by switching to different types of prey. Deer populations in some areas of Utah, however, have declined due to drought and heavy winter conditions over the past two years,” ...
Keeping an Eye on the Big Cats:Mountain Lion Population Trend Stable in the Dakotas January 31, 2020 North Dakota, Tri-State Livestock News
... NDGFD data shows mountain lion numbers peaking in 2004-05 through 2011-12 with confirmed sightings peaking at fifty-seven in 2008. More recently, annual confirmed sightings of mountain lions in North Dakota range between twenty and forty per year...The mountain lion population trends also mirror the deer population ...
Mountain Lion Killed After 'Attacking' Toddler West Of SW RivCo January 20, 2020 California, Patch
... A family of six was "walking in the park when the mountain lion attacked and grabbed the child by the neck. The family's father threw a backpack at the animal and it let the child go and instead grabbed the bag and jumped into a tree," ...
'It's not normal.' Spate of mountain lion attacks, sightings in Idaho sparks concern January 20, 2020 Idaho, Idaho Statesman
... What is unusual ... is the frequency at which residents have seen the big cats in recent months, a figure amplified by a spate of recent attacks on pets in the area...
Utah cougar harvest quotas increased as wildlife officials seek to combat deer decline January 17, 2020 KSL
... In response to a decline in deer populations in some pockets of the state due, in part, to adverse weather conditions and the animals falling prey to cougars in recent years, state wildlife officials issued an “emergency” increase of 117 cougar harvest objectives in 11 areas across Utah .., [Graph from Utah DWR]
Wildlife group surveys public on cougar concerns January 13, 2020 Washington, Capital Press
... In recent years, the region's cougar populations have increased, impacting deer, elk and moose populations ... Magart expects the 2019 deer harvest to be the lowest on record ... With less prey, the cougars are moving closer to towns ...
Mountain Lion History, 100 years ago in Nevada County (November 1919) November 29, 2019 California, The Union
... The Narrow Gauge track crew saw a lion take down a fawn. California lions take a heavy toll on deer and there is a substantial bounty on their pelts...
This part of BC has the highest concentration of cougars in the world October 18, 2019 British Columbia, PrinceGeorgeMatters.com
... According to the University of Victoria, roughly 4000 of the solitary creatures live in Canada ... on Vancouver Island ... around the 600 to 800 range, but population estimates are difficult ... the Island puma population is considered healthy, and their primary prey, the black-tailed deer, is plentiful..,
Fearing cougars more than wolves, Yellowstone elk manage threats from both predators August 2, 2019 Science Daily
... a new study has found that the secretive cougar is actually the main predator influencing the movement of elk across the winter range of northern Yellowstone National Park... "Cougars hunted mainly in forested, rugged areas at night, whereas wolves hunted mainly in grassy, flat areas during morning and at dusk" ...
Whitetail leader forecasting banner hunting season this fall July 31, 2019 Texas, Huntsville Item
... about 5.4 million animals, which equals about 48 deer per 1,000 acres... one deer for every 21 acres of monitored deer range... fall rains drenched much of the state and turned the landscape ripe with valuable forage that lasted well into spring with mild winter conditions... 700,000-plus whitetail hunters ..,
Stevens County community signs petition, hopes to increase cougar hunting May 6, 2019 Washinton, KREM.com
... "It's not like there's an occasional cougar sighting. There are daily cougar sightings," ... Our deer population is going down so fast that our predators are going to have to find something to eat." ...
Wolf task force seeks to form advisory board March 15, 2019 Oregon, Curry Coastal Pilot
... Boice ... notes that cougars alone have decimated the regional deer and elk population that keep the grass cropped... there are 6,000 cougars in Oregon, which collectively need 300,000 deer and elk each year to survive... without deer and elk grazing and keeping forest fuels down, forest fires could be even more fierce...
New Montana mountain lion strategy out for review, comment October 14, 2018 Independent Record
... Mountain lion kill rates vary by location and ecological system, but are generally reported as one kill per seven days in deer dominated systems and one kill per 10 days in systems where elk are also available ... [read the plan]
USU scientists studied cougars from above using NASA satellites August 9, 2018 Utah, Standard-Examiner
... Mountain lions generally eat just under one ungulate a week, preying on an average of 38 deer each year according to a study from 2010... mountains and foothills ...there's four to five mountain lions and 1,300 to 1,900 deer per 100 square miles... desert habitats that support the animals have sparser populations. Per 100 square miles in those areas, there's two mountain lions and around 750 deer at best. ...
Mom comes face-to-face with cougar killed in Cascade Locks June 23, 2019 Oregon, KOMO News
... an ODFW spokesperson said the cougar populations there is growing while the deer population is shrinking. He said deer are their primary source of food. He said that could be leading to more conflict with humans...
Managing Montana's mountain lion population has never been an easy task November 23, 2018 Ravalli Republic
... The mountain lion research effort in the Bitterroot Valley was an outgrowth of a major elk study focused on calf mortality. When researchers discovered that mountain lions were the main predator of elk calves in their first year of the life, the researchers decided they needed to establish a baseline number for lion population in the valley...
This Northern California mountain lion is a serial killer — of horses October 29, 2018 Los Angeles Times
... an adult male mountain lion known as M166. In the last year, while his feline counterparts have feasted mainly on deer, this cougar has garnered a reputation as a horse killer ...
State cougar plan will incorporate new monitoring, computer models December 11, 2016 Montana, The Missoulian
... The new way to estimate the mountain lion populations in these larger regions is based on a study in the Bitterroot Valley. FWP biologist Kelly Proffitt was the lead author of a 2015 peer-reviewed article about the study ...
If you have deer, you have mountain Lions - This is a common warning about deer, but lions and bears are searching for food everywhere:
Another wild animal sighting in Spanish Fork October 6, 2016 Utah, Good4Utah
... Tuesday, a cougar was spotted roaming in a neighborhood ... "They're usually following deer and we don't have deer," said Seamons [Utah division of wildlife]...
Mountain lion predation and livestock September 25, 2016 North Dakota, CattleNetwork.com
... Of the 14 animals evaluated ... Half of the cougars had either mule deer or white-tailed deer in their system. Other native species found in the intestines included jackrabbits, porcupines, beavers, badgers, minks and other rodents. Porcupine remains were found in two of the animals and 87 percent of the cougars had porcupine quills in their skin or flesh...
Los Angeles Mountain Lions Are Hunting Closer to Homes Than Scientists Thought July 20, 2016 California, TakePart
... Mountain lions are not listed as threatened in California, but only around 10 to 15 remain within the 240-square-mile Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area... on our current trajectory we expect genetic issues to start causing problems for this population unless they can increase dispersal,” ...
Cougars in the crosshairs November 16, 2015 Oregon, The Register-Guard
... If cougars were responsible for declines in mule deer, and if killing cougars would reverse the declines, there might be some justification for the target areas. But mule deer populations have been falling for half a century, before and after Measure 18. The primary reason is not predation, but a decline in the quantity and quantity of forage ...
Cougars unlikely to settle in Minnesota, Wisconsin November 15, 2015 Duluth News Tribune
... With breeding populations already established in Nebraska and the Dakotas, the cougar could further expand into southern Missouri, eastern Oklahoma and northern and western Arkansas, the study found... Cougars expand their range by what is called “stepping stone dispersal” ...
It's not just Cecil: Trophy hunting is threatening mountain lions right here in the US November 13, 2015 Washington, Washington Post
... nearly half a dozen states ... have proposed an increase in cougar hunting quotas for a variety of reasons, including the desire to reduce human conflict, protect livestock or increase native deer populations. ...The harvest rate is currently set at 12 to 16 percent of the population. Wielgus’s research in Washington, along with other studies in Montana, has suggested that cougar populations tend to increase at a rate of 12 percent ...
Urban deer don’t attract cougars October 18, 2015 British Columbia, Times Colonist
... In 1973, a cougar was shot on the steps of the Carnegie Building at Yates and Blanshard... Deer only became numerous in Victoria since the year 2000. Cougars are territorial, and young ones are forced into marginal areas by mature cats ...
Human Lion Interactions
2 mountain lions euthanized after attack on 8-year-old boy in Bailey August 23, 2019 Colorado, 9News.com KUSA
... Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) believes one of the two mountain lions officers euthanized Thursday afternoon was responsible for attacking an 8-year-old boy ...
Colorado has had 22 mountain lion attacks since 1990. There have been 3 already in 2019 August 24, 2019 KUSA
... CPW estimates there are anywhere from 4,000 to 5,500 mountain lions in the state...