The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks (GFP) is proposing to increase the kill of cougars in the next Black Hills hunt to reduce the population by 30%. The data analysis in their management proposal is skewed; the reduction of the cougar population could be much greater. At the same time, Wyoming proposes to turn its portion of the Black Hills into a cougar population sink without giving any reasons. Cougar biologists call a region a population sink when deaths—largely caused by humans—exceed births.
Here is the link to the draft management proposal – http://gfp.sd.gov/wildlife/docs/SDmountainLionmanageplan2010-2015.pdf
The Black Hills have been a major source of the dispersing young adults that are showing up from time to time in the Midwest. Dispersal is a normal part of a thriving cougar population. It maintains genetic diversity and gives cougars the ability to colonize good habitat with few or no cougars. If human-caused cougar deaths exceed births in the Black Hills, that potential recolonization process could end.
The draft proposal states, “Due to land ownership on the prairie and limited available habitat preferred by mountain lions, GFP currently does not intend to manage for a sustainable population outside the Black Hills ecosystem.” They don’t want let the cats decide for themselves where the good habitat is. At present, the GFP has an unlimited quota for cougars on the prairies during the cougar hunting season. Few have been killed by hunters. But patches of good cougar habitat do exist outside the Hills–areas where females could settle and rear kittens, some of which would disperse East and South and continue the recolonization process. The GFP should protect cougars on the prairies outside of the Black Hills unless they attack wildlife or are a CLEAR IMMINENT threat to humans.
Dr. Sharon Seneczko, president of the Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation says, “After speaking with various GFP officials, it seems that the reason for the proposed dramatic reduction in the lion population is a combination of things such as complaints from ranchers (although GFP staff tell me that there is actually very little lion depredation on livestock) and an old anti-predator mentality, pressure from hunters who believe that lions are the main reason that prey species have declined (some GFP biologists have worked hard to dispel this but have been unsuccessful) and intolerance based in fear.”
Three different analyses have demonstrated that the GFP’s estimate of the number of cougars in the Black Hills is flawed. These flawed calculations could lead to the decimation of the Black Hills cougar population.
Shell-game science, no peer review and a management plan gerrymandered to appease one constituency–deer hunters. When will game agencies begin managing not by numbers, but by the integrity of the ecosystems they are entrusted by the public to protect and preserve?
Please visit http://www.mountainlion.org/states/SD_related_Material.asp for a set of documents relevant to the draft management plan, and go here for an overview of the history of cougar management in South Dakota – http://www.mountainlion.org/states/_state_South_Dakota.asp
The deadline for comments is July 26th. Email your comments to chad.switzer@state.sd.us