The head nuts, Ed Bangs, says lions, bears, and the drought are all contibuting to the decline. He is full of doo doo. The whole state of Wyoming is in about year 7 of a prolonged drought, but in non-wolf areas elk numbers are increasing. And in heavey wolf areas where we used to run lion we can't even find a set of tracks. My son puts in about 40 days each winter hunting, mostly treeing and photgraphing cats, not killing, and so far this winter in the areas with high wolf populations, not a singel cat. Other oufitters are saying the same thing. I think the wolf has displaced them, or forced them to move to different areas, and maybe even killed many young cats.