The study found that wolves accounted for 32% of adult female elk deaths and 28% of elk calf deaths, while cougars accounted for 35% of adult female elk deaths and 45% of elk calf deaths.
Three Montana men all pleaded guilty and were ordered to pay $1,666 each in restitution, sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation and stripped of their hunting and fishing privileges for three years.
But largest was a bruiser that tipped the scales at over 160 pounds.
Research suggests that lion hunters tend to kill older cougars, which happen to be specialists at feeding on elk. However, the numbers of younger lions that tend to eat deer are largely left unchanged.
A necropsy report said the cat that attacked Travis Kauffman was male, 4 or 5 months old and weighed 35 to 40 pounds. Kauffman eventually suffocated the animal.
Widespread extermination of wolves, cougars early last century meant elk herds able to grow in size, eating away willow plants and other vegetation along park’s streams, causing erosion damage. But in recent years, resurgent populations of wolves and cougars have restored the park’s natural balance by knocking back elk numbers and changing the herds’ behaviors.
But state wildlife officials say that because the big cats have all been spotted at night and haven’t attacked anyone, it’s not a public safety concern.
The rare sighting caught on a field cam verified in Gogebic County.
Hunters say they’ve seen the problem coming for years, ever since a ballot initiative in 1994 outlawed the use of hounds to hunt cougars.
The season will provide a harvest opportunity for up to eight mountain lions in two sub-units within the Pine Ridge of northwestern Nebraska.
Rich Beausoleil, the state’s bear and cougar specialist, said it was only the second fatality in the state in the last 94 years.
Bears, bobcats, gray wolves and mountain lions expanding into some areas they have not inhabited in years.
The mountain lion like this one was spotted in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San Gabriel Mountains wilderness.AZUSA, Calif. — A mountain lion roamed through backyards in a neighborhood outside Los Angeles before wildlife officers tranquilized it. The lion was spotted Monday morning in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San…
The mountain lion like this one was spotted in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San Gabriel Mountains wilderness.SILVERTON, Ore. — Oregon wildlife officials say they were forced to trap and euthanize a cougar after several reported sightings of the animals in and around the town of Silverton. “The cougar was euthanized (last week) because it…
Doug Dufford, wildlife disease and invasive species program manager at the Illinois DNR, says there’s “a good possibility that we will see more cougar sightings going forward.”FRISCO, Colo. — A study by a Colorado university found that although mountain lions normally avoid human contact, they are willing to push past their fear when they are hungry. The Colorado State University…
State carnivore research scientist Brian Kertson called the cat a monster. He said it’s so muscular that the first tranquilizer dart he shot at it popped out as the cat flexed.
Video shows Fish and Game conservation officers releasing a cat from a trap.
One of several cougar sightings in recent months, this animal was recorded on a security camera during the early morning hours of Feb. 7 as it crossed a walkway in front of the residence.
“Mountain lions interact way more regularly and predictably than we ever thought before.”
It is unknown whether this cougar is the same animal photographed on multiple trail cameras in central Wisconsin between early August and late October 2017.
The animals are uncommon in Iowa, but they are not listed as a furbearer and have no protected status in the state.
It’s not unheard of for a mountain lion to travel such long distances.PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission did not adopt a proposal that would have expanded the use of hounds to hunt mountain lions, the agency said in a news release Tuesday, Nov. 7. The initial request, through the citizen petition process, asked…
Populations appear to be increasing, raising questions about what is and what could become cougar country.
Plan calls for trying to kill up to 15 cougars and 25 bears a year for three years to see if that helps more elk fawns survive.
Division of Wildlife Resources models estimate there are between 1,900 and 4,000 adult cougars living in the state.
It is only the fourth known successful crossing of the 101 in the 15 years that researchers have been studying the big cats in the Santa Monica Mountains. The freeway and other roads are life-threatening to the region’s lions – 17 documented road kills since 2002.
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