Asking the public to decide if it’s a good idea to ban hunting mountain lions and bobcats is no way for a state to run its wildlife agency. We all have opinions, but most of us aren’t experts in managing wildlife. The state constantly monitors lion populations to keep lions out of trouble, set hunting limits and promote stable populations.
Yet an effort is underway to ban hunting and trapping lions, bobcats and even lynx, which are already protected by the state. Anti-hunting advocates are working to collect enough signatures to get a ban on the ballot this fall.
I urge Colorado residents not to sign this petition because I think voters across the West should resist voting on decisions that are better left to biologists and game managers at state wildlife agencies.
Unlike eastern states, most states in the West allow citizen-initiated ballot measures to make changes to their laws. But using this format of direct democracy, also known as ballot box biology, means citizens take it upon themselves to make policy concerning highly technical topics such as big cat hunting or wolf reintroduction.
The proposed ban is not straightforward.
Including lynx, which cannot be hunted outside of Alaska, is confusing. Another confusing goal of the ban is its goal of preventing hunters from killing cougars and bobcats as trophies, rather than for meat. In Colorado, hunters are already required to take all edible meat from their kills of lions though not for bobcats. States like Montana and Utah exempt big cats from meat-salvage regulations, but how hunters utilize their harvest is better left to experts.
But animal rights activists aren’t trying to make sure hunters eat the mountain lions that they hunt. Their true goal is to prevent hunting in general, starting with a species the public knows little about. If voters think about the ethics of hunting mountain lions, they will realize it’s more complicated than simply banning or allowing the practice.
Consider California, where mountain lion hunting has long been outlawed. In 2023, state wildlife agencies received 515 reports of cougars attacking livestock. In response, the state issued 204 “depredation” permits. Thirty-nine of these permits allowed the cat to be killed, while 165 allowed the non-lethal removal of the animals.
Biology requires that some predators be hunted, regardless of how voters feel about it.
Cougar population management of the state’s approximately 4,000 cougars is such a complex issue that all Colorado hunters must take a course and pass a test before being issued a hunting license to pursue cougars. Last year, 2,599 of these hunters killed 502 mountain lions in the state; if they hadn’t, a much larger number of deer and elk would have undoubtedly been killed by the big cats.
Managing this balance is a full-time job for hundreds of biologists who determine the number of permits to issue based on science rather than a vote.
I’m thankful for these experts, and I don’t want to see them lose hunting as a tool for managing mountain lion populations.
I live in mountain lion country. Walking in the woods behind my house, I often see deer carcasses hanging in trees, evidence of lions storing their next meal. Female cougars screaming during mating season sometimes keeps my family up at night.
Despite these frightening sights and sounds, bees kill far more people than mountain lions. While a recent fatality in California reminds us that cougars are dangerous predators that can kill us, there have been fewer than 30 fatal attacks on humans in the past century.
I support hunting these apex predators to prevent overpopulation. If there are too many mountain lions, they can overhunt prey species and come into more frequent contact with humans. Hunting is a more intelligent, humane approach to wildlife management than allowing populations to grow out of control and die of starvation.
As much as I dislike ballot box biology, the practice is apparently here to stay across the West. But if someone asks you to sign a petition to change hunting laws or your ballot asks you to vote on how to manage specific wildlife populations, ask yourself if you’re an expert on cougars and bobcats.
Let’s not vote to override the sound policies of the state wildlife agency.
Andrew Carpenter is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is a hunter and writer and lives in Colorado.
Mountain lion, courtesy Writers on the Range
This column was published in the following newspapers:
| 05/14/2024 | Vail Daily | Vail | CO |
| 05/14/2024 | Glendive Ranger Review | Glendive | MT |
| 05/14/2024 | Cortez Journal | Cortez | CO |
| 05/14/2024 | Durango Herald | Durango | CO |
| 05/15/2024 | Trinidad Chronicle News | Trinidad | CO |
| 05/16/2024 | Whitehall Ledger | Whitehall | MT |
| 05/16/2024 | Laramie Boomerang | Laramie | WY |
| 05/16/2024 | Delta County Independent | Delta | CO |
| 05/17/2024 | Wyoming Tribune Eagle | Cheyenne | WY |
| 05/16/2024 | Taos News | Taos | NM |
| 05/16/2024 | Pagosa Springs Sun | Pagosa Springs | CO |
| 05/17/2024 | Aspen Daily News | Aspen | CO |
| 05/17/2024 | Durango Telegraph | Durango | CO |
| 05/20/2024 | Moab Times Independent | Moab | UT |
| 05/19/2024 | Albuquerque Journal | Alburquerque | NM |
| 05/20/2024 | Aspen Times | Aspen | CO |
| 05/22/2024 | Pikes Peak Courier | Woodland | CO |
| 06/09/2024 | Sky-Hi News | Granby | CO |
| 07/13/2024 | Leadville Herald-Democrat | Leadville | CO |
“Last year, 2,599 of these hunters killed 502 mountain lions in the state; if they hadn’t, a much larger number of deer and elk would have undoubtedly been killed by the big cats.” What would have been the problem with that?
Well,any hunter knows how dangerous elk can be! Who wants to be kicked by front or back legs? And any researcher can find that over 60% of mnt lion kills were found to have Chronic Wasting Disease, published by CPW. And, any researcher can look at the percent of CO hunt allotments finding about 42% of them have shown CWD in those tested.
So, some hunters i know always test their elk and deer, no matter what.
So, 502 mnt lions alive, have a great skill to find diseased animals.
Now this is an educated comment. CWD was and still is a massive problem where we (myself and the author grew up)…
“Sigh” And now for the sad truth I don’t want to but am going to tell you part: It’s a good thing Mountain Lions need a massive range because if that’s the case the is a high probability at some point daddy is going to bring cat CJD home to the family.
In Utah, the legislature passed a law in 2023 that allows year-round, as in 365 days, hunting of lions without restraint. The division of wildlife has effectively been stripped of any authority in the matter. That cannot by any means be considered “management”. If people like me support the hunting bans you mention, it is at least in part because we see ridiculous, Civil War-era attitudes towards predators. I have no problem with hunting ANYTHING, as long as it is scientifically managed. That is not happening, with Utah’s cougars and Wyoming’s wolves as the poster children for these destructive laws.
A few things stood out to me with this opinion piece. First, there was no recognition that traps are indiscriminate and unless someone is a learned and diligent trapper who checks the trapline
often anything including lynx can be trapped. Next, the apparent frequent occurrence of lions caching their kills in trees. I’ve been following these cats for decades and following others who have as well and have never heard of this. Lions cover their kills on the ground unless chased off by another predator like a wolf. Anything is possible but a lion killed deer hanging in a tree is unheard of as a frequent occurrence. And lastly, like most predators, lions self regulate their population. The opposite is a fallacy promoted by game and fish employees and hunters for obvious reasons. It is the prey species that are vulnerable to overpopulation (ex. Deer in the northeast).
Right. Hunters often claim that they are benefiting the ecosystem by controlling the deer population. This piece has many fallacies. The main problem people have with mountain lions is the killing of livestock, which are extremely damaging to the environment. It’s all about profits…
Lol. 😂 Where we (we being me and the author) grew up there was a time you had to “Earn a Buck (Tag)” by proving you killed an antlerless deer that season. They even considered it for Bow Hunting…
This is the best story I have read since following this website. Score 1 for the good guys!
Congratulations, Andrew
Trapping is inhumane and indiscriminate, causes prolonged suffering and should be banned.
Lions don’t cache deer in trees and biology doesn’t require hunting of some predators – credibility zero…
Reading the replies and what you find is that those who are opposed to hunting and trapping have no biologically sound arguments for their positions. The point of the article was to advocate for the Professional Biologists to make the decisions regarding managing of wildlife not emotions and uninformed and uneducated opinions. The notion that wildlife does not need to be managed demonstrates an extreme level of ignorance of the issues at play. Human beings are stakeholders in the bounty of nature as well as wildlife is. From rural economies, to agricultural and ranching traditions, to the massive recreational/financial impact on the state economy. And how would you go about replacing the protein provided by the elk, deer, pronghorn , and yes even mountain lions, that hunters harvest each year by their own hands ( not by slaughterhouses with protein from factory farms). We are talking about millions of pounds of the finest organic meat. The meat they harvest is what is called the harvestable surplus. What that means is we can take a certain percentage of animals out of a population without hurting its ability to maintain a level pollution each year. Absent that, predator and game populations will go through a boom and bust type cycle of overpopulation and then starvation. Have any single one of you reading this ever been a range where starvation is occurring? I can attest that it is heartbreaking even for a hunter, most of who actually aren’t blood thirsty heathens. If you could eliminate some of that while utilizing the animals as food why wouldn’t you? Why would it be OK to eliminate from human culture something that is part of our DNA? Hunters Kill to procure food, to participate in the most profound way with nature, to honor a cultural imperative that has been with humankind for as long as humans have been present on earth. It is part of who we are as human beings. To forcibly eliminate that sounds almost genocidal to me.
Amen brother! (Full disclosure the auther of this acticle is my actual BFF). Where we grew up we watched CWD ravage the deer population and very potentially fatally impact people. That part is waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point.
My dad who is a retired Bodyshop Manager used to plan around “deer hit season” the way retailers plan around the Holidays. In parts of the state deer were actually starving at points. This was up to the level that, and I am not kidding, we had a program called “Earn a Buck.” For gun season you had to kill a anthlerless deer to earn the right to kill a buck. Guys were picking up roadkill to tag. It got so bad they talked about doing it for Bow Hunting too.
Bottom line we are a part of our ecosystems whether we like it or not, and have to act accordingly. We are the S-tier Apex Predators and need to do our jobs.
Good article…Thanks Andrew!
Unfortunately, the assumptions of the author don’t match reality. In most blood red western states biologists do not have the final word on wildlife management, especially predators. MAGA governors and willfully ignorant legislators do and are willing to use budget politics and oversight of commissions to play politics. I’m a lifelong hunter. Frankly, I no longer trust state governments or hunters to ethically “control” predator populations – populations that don’t need our control. Trapping these predators into control is just plain wrong ethically and biologically.
This essay seems entirely anthropocentric. Humans managing mountain lion hunting so that there will be more deer for humans to hunt. It’s not about the health of wildlife at all. I no longer see any reason for anyone to hunt anything. The devastation to wildlife both in habitat destruction and now global warming has been so severe that it no longer makes any sense to hunt anything. The author should be delighted he has the privilege of hearing the female cougars ‘scream’. He should consider it an honor to be living in its territory. It reminds me of all the people who come to my valley and erect 8 foot high deer and elk fences to keep the deer and elk out of their native habitat so that the humans can pretend to be environmentalists and live rurally. How’s about a real dialogue about the falseness of anthropocentric views on wildlife whether it’s human ‘experts’ or human voters. How’s about caring about wildlife for the sake of wildlife, not for the sake of the humans who like to kill it.