Survival . . . what mother nature equipped these “killing machines” with eons ago.  Intelligent, perfectly adapted, efficient and very deadly, they are masters of predation.  Not until the middle of the 20th century were these North American predators seen as fit for anything but extermination.  Now we are regarding them as nature’s game wardens, killing only what the populations will bear.  The truth, however, is much more complex.  In the end, they are killers, and as we are finally beginning to realize, it would be unwise to allow these killers to run unchecked.

Conflicts between mountain lion/cougar and humans are on the rise in virtually all Western states.  Lion numbers are at an all-time high throughout the West and these cats are spilling out of their natural realm and infiltrating many edge-of-the-wilderness residential communities.  More cougar attacks on humans have occurred during the past 20 years than during the previous 80, with the majority of these attack victims under the age of 16.  So, it is no doubt that mountain lion hysteria is seeping into the consciousness of residents in small communities located in the outlying subdivided lion habitat.

Ordinarily we deal with the overpopulation of wildlife by increasing hunting opportunities and quotas to reduce that population.  But cougars in residential areas create special management problems for our Game & Fish departments.  No one wishes to see lions stalk through  downtown parks or baying hounds tracking through school yards.  The questions that arise are inevitable. Why are there so many lions? Why are the cats coming to town? Why are they unafraid?  One theory voiced from many veteran lion hunters and believed to be very accurate is that the younger cats are the greatest  problem.  Oftentimes these younger cats are forced out of their territory by dominant older lions or by a lack of small game the less experienced cats prey on until they have developed more adapt hunting skills.  Many experienced lion hunters believe that “trophy lion hunting” and the subsequent reduction of the larger, mature male cats is one of the main reasons why the overall lion population has skyrocketed.

President Theodore Roosevelt, one of the founders of the Boone & Crockett Club and also one of the chief advocates of the wildlife conservation movement in our country, dismissed the cougar as an evolutionary error.  Roosevelt supported the eradication of mountain lions in order to protect and enhance the dwindling big game populations of deer and elk.  Most states placed a bounty on lions and were hunted to virtual extinction east of the Mississippi River and populations were seriously reduced throughout the West.  Cougar bounties were set in the mid-1860's in New Mexico Territory and lasted until the early 1960's in the State of Montana, subjecting these predators to an unlimited and profitable killing spree lasting nearly a century.

Man’s continual encroachment into wildlife habitats is forcing our Game & Fish managers to regulate populations of both predator and prey so they will remain in check within the capacity of constantly dwindling wildlife habitation.  Sport hunting restrictions are their primary approach to achieving this goal.  Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah all offer some of the finest mountain lion hunting that is available today.  The pursuit of trophy toms is a physically demanding hunting adventure.  Lion hunting is more than merely just looking for tracks in the snow, it is the chase, it is the sound of the baying hounds hot on the trail of a fleeing tom and it is the compelling urgency generated in hunters once the hounds have treed their quarry. 

Another view of this lion dilemma is the fact that the presence of healthy, fat cats at the head of the food chain should be a solid indication that their prey populations like deer and elk are also in good health and their environment is flourishing.  When big game numbers are high, lion numbers will also be high.  This delicate natural balance is greatly affected when too many of either species are removed from the ecosystem.  The fact is, though,  that deer populations have decreased across the West in the past decade.  Game & Fish biologists point to three major factors that have lead to this decline 1) loss of a habitat due to competition with elk and cattle, 2)severe weather patterns (i.e., harsh winters and dry summers), 3) man’s ceaseless encroachment into and devastation of natural environment, such as subdivisions and shopping malls.   Game officials imply that mountain lions kill only a few deer each year and that coyotes may take some fawns, but normally not enough to matter.  Wolves are also becoming a concern, but manage to leave plenty for sportsmen.  Given a stable environment, natural reproduction will take care of predator loss.  So, why then do so many wildlife biologists refuse to believe that mountain lions, wolves and coyotes take down so many big game animals each year?  Possibly it is because many of these veteran biologists were educated when predators were almost extinct.  Recent evidence would, surely, contradict this belief.

Hunters have repeatedly claimed that we need to hunt deer and elk to replace the predator, and we have repeatedly shown that we cannot accomplish this on our own.  Even with the liberal hunting seasons, whitetail deer have become somewhat of a plague over many areas of the eastern half of the United States.  In these areas, natural food sources have been virtually eliminated, decimating birds such as the bobwhite quail in much of their native domain.  An alarming increase in elk populations, despite record hunting success throughout the West, is 
forcing biologists to team together on the reestablishment of natural predators in the hope of
aiding sportsmen in the prevention of over harvesting of natural habitats by big game animals.

Overall,  sound management, not elimination, of predators should be the objective.  Human interference in the course of Mother Nature will never be acceptable to the view of many environmentalists, however, man must learn to live alongside predator and  prey.  The difficulty lies in discovering the balance.

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