RE: e-mail KOMO TV
Dont forget to email ABC National as well since the piece and article (Below) came from them. It was broadcast nationally.
Btw, the current information from WDFW says that lion pops are now declining in WA because boot hunters take so many females. Which is another reason that hounds are a better, more selective way to manage these large, dangerous (even if beautiful) critters.
From ABCnews.com
Colorado Cougar Cause
Wildlife Enthusiasts Join to Save Endangered Cougars
By Bill Redeker
F O R T C O L L I N S, Colo., Jan. 2
— Cougars, or mountain lions, once prowled across all 48 states in the continental United States. But their threat to livestock made them targets for ranchers and hunters.
Today, the big cats are extinct in the East and survive in only a dozen Western states. They may soon become endangered here, too, where it is legal to hunt the animals.
Rick Kahn, wildlife supervisor of Colorado's Division of Wildlife, says the number of mountain lions killed by hunters has doubled in the last 20 years.
While he admitted there was no way of knowing the exact number of cougars in Colorado, he estimated about 4,000 of the cats live in the Rocky Mountain range.
"I think we're harvesting in the range of 300 to 400 animals a year," he said. "We have a quota system and we try to manage our mountain lion population."
Population maintenance is important because as suburban sprawl encroaches upon the cougars' once expansive territory, the introduction of people to the wild animals can have fatal consequences.
According to a New York Times report, human attacks on people average about four a year. Since 1890, mountain lions have killed 17 people, 11 of them children, in the United States and Canada.
In Arizona, the cougars' purported role in the decline of a reintroduced bighorn sheep population prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to grant the Arizona Game and Fish Department permission to proceed with the killing of up to 36 cougars over the next three years.
In many Western states, the fear of livestock losses due to prowling mountain lions is a major concern. Ranchers fear financial shortfalls if mountain lions hunt in the areas where their livestock graze.
Goodall to the Rescue
Nevertheless, wildlife champion Jane Goodall, best known for her pioneering work with African chimpanzees, has just taken up the cougar conservation cause. She says it doesn't matter how many cougars are believed to be in the wild, they should all be protected as they are in California.
"It was only recently that I realized that mountain lions were being shot. I naively thought that, like in California, they were protected and to hear that they were shot by hunters with dogs, I just find this completely terrible."
Hunting the elusive animals is not all that sporting. Professional trackers use dogs to stalk and trap the cats in trees. Hunters, sometimes days later, simply show up, take aim, and fire.
Colorado issues about 700 cougar hunting permits a year. Some trackers earn thousands of dollars for their services.
It is also perfectly legal to kill a mother cougar while she is raising her young. That has incensed wildlife enthusiasts, especially renowned photographer Thomas Mangelson. "We don't shoot elk in the spring that have calves, we don't shoot moose that have calves, we don't shoot deer that have fawns, we don't shoot anything except cougars."
Mangelson, whose spectacular photographs capture animals in the wild, spent 42 days staking out a mother cougar and her offspring near Jackson, Wyo., two years ago.
"It was the first time I'd ever seen one of these magnificent cats," he said. "They are extremely reclusive and incredibly protective of their offspring."
But once word got out that a family of cougars was in the area, the state of Wyoming proposed doubling the cougar quota.
That incident so incensed Mangelson that he recruited Goodall and created The Cougar Fund to educate the public.
"I really hope before it's too late in this country that the mountain lions will be protected," said Goodall. "This is supposed to be the land of the free and it should be free for the beautiful mountain lions as well."