PANTHERA
A new and
provocative study from Panthera, the global wild cat conservation
organization, challenges the science driving controversial puma hunting
policies in 15 states in the Western U.S. and two Canadian provinces. Published
this week in the Society for Conservation Biology journal, “Conservation
Science and Practice,” the study suggests that current puma—or mountain
lion—hunting strategies designed to protect mule deer populations may, in fact,
be contributing to their decline.
Lead author
and puma program director Mark Elbroch said, “This research demonstrates it’s
time we take a harder look at the potential unintended consequences of heavy
puma hunting, and the cascading effects it has on biodiversity.”
Based
outside of Jackson, Wyoming, where Panthera’s 17-year-long Teton Cougar Project
was located, the study examined why pumas forage in different ways and linked
the results to known effects of legal hunting of pumas. Age was found
to be the determining factor influencing puma prey choice, with older cats
feeding on larger elk and younger pumas preying on smaller and more manageable
mule deer, some of which don beautiful antlers coveted by hunters.
Driven
largely by hunting lobby interests, states in the West, apart from California,
have across-the-board adopted strategies allowing legal or trophy hunting of
pumas in part to protect and grow mule deer populations for hunters to target.
However, puma research has repeatedly shown that heavy hunting pressure
often reduces the average age of pumas in a population, rather
than dramatically decreasing the number of cats in the landscape, as hunters
target older and bigger trophy animals.
This
research indicates that heavy hunting may, in fact, exacerbate problems
for mule deer by changing the age structure of the puma population to
predominantly younger animals that are more likely to hunt mule deer than elk.
Decades-old
research was the first to prove that pumas and other predators have little
influence on deer populations. Instead, biologists agree that weather and
food, including a widespread drought primarily responsible for the recent Rocky
Mountain mule deer decline, are the driving forces influencing deer numbers. Despite
these facts, efforts to remove pumas to aid mule deer populations persist
throughout the American West.
Colorado
recently implemented a controversial policy openly opposed
by scientific voices, and currently under litigation, that allows for
persecution of hundreds of pumas and black bears by contracted hunters to
protect mule deer. One state over, in Utah, hunters are predominantly
killing pumas that are only three years old, who have essentially
just left their mother’s side.
In a
long-term experiment from Idaho, researchers actively removed pumas and coyotes
to attempt to increase mule deer numbers. Doing so allowed more fawns to
survive longer intervals, and increased the number of does with fawns in the
population, but these differences ultimately did not translate into deer
population growth.
In addition
to producing counterintuitive results, blind investment in puma hunting
policies uninformed by science may threaten public health. The recent case of
a jogger in Colorado who attacked and killed a puma cub in
self-defense and another incident this week of a puma attack in British
Columbia, where research suggests puma hunting is causing greater
human-cat conflict, are two recent examples of safety concern.
“Our hope is
that this research helps to effect change to scientifically-questionable
policies that, as of now, are highly influenced by livestock and hunting
groups, [and lead] to one that takes a more holistic approach, effectively
conserving wildlife populations—and even growing mule deer populations—in a
more natural way, guided by scientifically-derived and well-based information,”
said Howard Quigley, study co-author and Panthera conservation science executive
director.
Panthera,
founded in 2006, is devoted exclusively to preserving wild cats and their
critical role in the world’s ecosystems. Panthera’s team of leading biologists,
law enforcement experts and wild cat advocates develop innovative strategies
based on the best available science to protect cheetahs, jaguars, leopards,
lions, pumas, snow leopards and tigers and their vast landscapes. In 36
countries around the world, Panthera works with a wide variety of stakeholders
to reduce or eliminate the most pressing threats to wild cats, thus securing
their future and ours.
Visit panthera.org to learn more.
