Orphans and juveniles entering residential areas–what many of us predicted when they upped the quotas.
“Dr. Sharon Seneczko, a Custer veterinarian and president of the Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation, falls in that latter group. Seneczko has said for several years that higher kill quotas in the lion season would mean more dead females, more orphaned kittens and more young cats causing problems.
“’This isn’t surprising to me at all,’ she said of the recent string of lion incidents. ‘As they keep stepping up the season, killing more adult females, you get more young lions that haven’t developed the savvy to hunt appropriately.’
“Kanta said that’s something GF&P personnel ‘have our eye on,’ although there is no cause-effect documentation.
“‘There’s no doubt we’re disrupting more of those family groups’ with higher kill quotas during recent lion seasons, he said.”
Rapid City Journal
Cougars killed in Rapid City, Custer continue string of lion problems
Kevin Woster Journal staff
The cougar killing continued this week, as Game, Fish & Parks Department officers shot two more mountain lions after the cats wandered into residential areas.
GF&P regional wildlife manager John Kanta of Rapid City said Wednesday that a skinny female lion, estimated at 6 to 7 months old, was shot in Custer late Tuesday evening. Kanta said GF&P had received previous reports of a lion in the Custer area before Tuesday, when the cat ended up “in the middle of town.