Category Archives: mountain lion

More Mountain Lions

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mo mountain lionWhere are there more mountain lions? There are increases Puma concolor sightings just about everywhere, recent news reports say.

An article in The New York Times focuses on mountain lions’ expansion east from their strongholds in the Rocky Mountains and Texas. The article says that mountain lion sightings are now common in the Midwest, and it includes a map that shows recent sightings, including several in New England.

Read The New York Times article here.

In Arizona, an abundance of mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains has some folks worried about a planned release of bighorn sheep there, says an Arizona Daily Star article. A management plan calls for killing mountain lions that kill the bighorns, although the mountain lions should have plenty of other prey, the article quotes Jim Heffelfinger, regional game specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department as saying.

An increase in deer in the area likely lead to the increase in mountain lions, the article says.

Read the Arizona Daily Star article here.

Mountain lion populations have been going up in California for at least 20 years, with hundreds of sightings annually, but that doesn’t mean the sight of two mountain lions in Redlands, California isn’t news. Redlands is near the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angleles.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

Photo: One of the increasing number of Midwestern mountain lions, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

More Mountain Lions

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mo mountain lionWhere are there more mountain lions? There are increases Puma concolor sightings just about everywhere, recent news reports say.

An article in The New York Times focuses on mountain lions’ expansion east from their strongholds in the Rocky Mountains and Texas. The article says that mountain lion sightings are now common in the Midwest, and it includes a map that shows recent sightings, including several in New England.

Read The New York Times article here.

In Arizona, an abundance of mountain lions in the Catalina Mountains has some folks worried about a planned release of bighorn sheep there, says an Arizona Daily Star article. A management plan calls for killing mountain lions that kill the bighorns, although the mountain lions should have plenty of other prey, the article quotes Jim Heffelfinger, regional game specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department as saying.

An increase in deer in the area likely lead to the increase in mountain lions, the article says.

Read the Arizona Daily Star article here.

Mountain lion populations have been going up in California for at least 20 years, with hundreds of sightings annually, but that doesn’t mean the sight of two mountain lions in Redlands, California isn’t news. Redlands is near the San Bernardino Mountains, east of Los Angleles.

Read the Los Angeles Times article here.

Photo: One of the increasing number of Midwestern mountain lions, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Mountain Lion Caught Fishing

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The Missoulian reports that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear manager Jamie Jonkel caught something unexpected on the trail camera he set up to monitor a trout spawning stream on a tributary of the Blackfoot River. He expected to get videos of black bears catching rainbow trout. And he did.

But he also got a video of a mountain lion pouncing on a trout and then another shot of the lion with the trout in its mouth.

See the article for speculation about how rare or common this behavior is in mountain lions, as well as speculation for its cause. For the record, the article says that the area is good mountain lion habitat with plenty of game.

Read the article in the Missoulian, here.

Mountain Lion Research

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mo mountain lionWhen it comes to mountain lions making use of suburban habitats, there is no difference between males and females, or resident and transient animals, but sub-adult mountain lions were more likely to be found in the suburbs, a study published in the Journal of Mammalogy found. The study was conducted in western Washington State.

The study suggests targeting problem individual mountain lions, maintaining older age structures and other methods to decrease contact between humans and mountain lions.

Read the Journal of Mammalogy paper, here. (Subscription or fee required for full text.)

Wolves seem to be knocking back the mountain lion population in Wyoming’s Teton Mountains, and they seem to be targeting mountain lion kittens, says Mark Elbroch, a researcher with the Teton Cougar Project in an article in the Jackson Hole News & Guide. It’s competition, not predation, the article states.

The Teton Cougar Project both collars mountain lions and observes them through video cameras set up at bait stations. The article reports that project scientists will publish three papers in the coming year. Read more about the research in the Jackson Hole News & Guide article, here.

The Teton Cougar Project is a partnership between Panthera and Craighead Beringia South.

Photo: Mountain lion, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Michigan Confirms U.P. Mountain Lion Photos

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cougar_mqt_county_nov_2012_404621_7Not sure how we missed this in our recent wild cat news round-up, but a Michigan Department of Natural Resources press release says:

Three recent trail camera photos of cougars in the Upper Peninsula have been verified by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Two of the photos, both of a cougar with a radio collar, were taken in October in Menominee County – one near Cedar River and one near Menominee just north of the Wisconsin border. The third photo was taken in northern Marquette County in November. The cougar in the Marquette County photo is not wearing a radio collar.

The DNR does not place radio collars on cougars; North Dakota and South Dakota are the nearest states where wildlife researchers have placed radio collars on cougars to track their movement. The DNR has not yet been able to determine the origin of the radio-collared cougar that is in Michigan.

Cougars are otherwise known as mountain lions, Puma concolor to scientists.

Read the Michigan DNR press release here.
Read the UpNorthLive.com report here.
And read The Mining Journal article here.

Photo: trail cam photo of a mountain lion courtesy of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources

Old-timers Keep Mountain Lions Stable

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In January, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will begin using “equilibrium management” to determine the number of mountain lions (or cougars, Puma concolor) taken by hunters in each management unit, according to a press release from Washington State University. This will limit the take to the natural amount of reproduction — 14 percent, according to the release.

Research by Washington State University’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab has found that mature, adult male mountain lions are the lynchpin of the species’ population dynamics. According to the press release, mature males will kill younger males to protect their territories, keeping the overall population low. The mature males are also less likely to prey on livestock.

There is no word, however, on how using equilibrium management will prevent hunters from killing all the mature males in an area, therefore releasing the less stable younger males.

Several news outlets have published the press release with no additional reporting. Read the press release here.
Find the current studies of the Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, including many studies on Puma, here.

Photo courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Resident Mountain Lions in Michigan?

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Mountain lion sightings have been confirmed 15 times in the last several years, the Detroit Free Press reports. The article says that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources believes that the mountain lions are just passing through and that there is no resident population in the state.

However, the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, a non-profit organization, maintains that the sightings mean that there is a breeding population in the state. Google says that the organization’s site may be compromised, but a link to mountain lion info is front and center on its webpage. (“Cougars in Michigan: We proved they are here. Will you help protect them?”)

An article in the (Michigan) News Herald provides the details on the the group’s announcement. Read the News Herald article here.

Read the Detroit Free Press article here.

Photo: A generic mountain lion photo. Not a Michigan mountain lion.

Resident Mountain Lions in Michigan?

Posted on by
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Mountain lion sightings have been confirmed 15 times in the last several years, the Detroit Free Press reports. The article says that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources believes that the mountain lions are just passing through and that there is no resident population in the state.

However, the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, a non-profit organization, maintains that the sightings mean that there is a breeding population in the state. Google says that the organization’s site may be compromised, but a link to mountain lion info is front and center on its webpage. (“Cougars in Michigan: We proved they are here. Will you help protect them?”)

An article in the (Michigan) News Herald provides the details on the the group’s announcement. Read the News Herald article here.

Read the Detroit Free Press article here.

Photo: A generic mountain lion photo. Not a Michigan mountain lion.

Missouri Lions Are From All Over

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A Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) press release says that DNA test results show that four of the 14 mountain lions seen in Missouri last year came from three Western states.

MDC was able to document 12 of the 14 sightings, and four of the documented sighting yielded enough hair or tissue samples to do DNA testing on. DNA tests tied two young male cougars, one from Ray County and the other from Texas County, to the Black Hills area of South Dakota. DNA showed that a Macon County mountain lion was from central Montana. A mountain lion spotted in Oregon County was related to mountain lions from Colorado.

What was going on with mountain lions in Missouri last year is anyone’s guess. Previously, the highest number of sightings in the state in a year was two. This year there have been two as well.

“Increased public awareness and the growing popularity of trail cameras might account for part of the increase in sightings,” says Missouri resource scientist Jeff Beringer in the press release, “but last year’s spike is hard to explain. What we now know for sure is that mountain lions are traveling a long way to get here.”

Photo: Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

More States Turning to Night Hunting for Problem Animals

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North Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee are among the states that are allowing night hunting for problem species like feral swine, coyotes and mountain lions when existing hunting practices fail to reduce populations, says an article in USA Today.

Night hunting is allowed in 42 states, the article says, quoting data from the Indiana-based National Predator Hunters Association.

In the article, a coyote coexistence advocate is quoted as saying that hunting does little to reduce population levels of the fecund coyote. That’s a sentiment shared by many wildlife managers was well, regarding both coyotes and feral swine.

Read the USA Today article here.
PDF article on feral swine in New Hampshire Fish and Game’s magazine.

Photo: Feral swine piglet. If only they were all this cute. By Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service