Well not protected, but there is no open season for them. I hear of people getting in trouble for shooting bobcats all the time, because there is no season for them. They kill them then want to get them mounted, and the taxidermists turn them in. Oh and also. I'm just going by what the guy told Me. I don't know him personally like best friends or anything. He is just a neighboring hunter We talk to when at camp. He had a picture of a dead mountain lion. Hell he could be making the story up I dunno. I'm just telling the story like he told me. He seemed to go into a little to much detail though for it to be made up.