Cougars, Humans Crossing Paths Biologists Theorize, While Western States Get Used To The Problem

Across the West, mountain lions are blocking trails, stalking hunters, slinking through suburbs and killing livestock.

“Things are definitely changing, and I don’t know what it is that’s changing,” said John Beecham, Idaho Fish and Game biologist who tracks cougar populations in Idaho.

Idaho is no exception. Earlier this month, a cougar crept into a Pocatello suburb and killed a goat twice its size. The owner, who discovered the goat was missing when she returned home after dark from the Eastern Idaho State Fair, found the goat and the cougar in a nearby creek.

Last February, a mountain lion pounced onto a porch in the tiny town of Elba, then killed a sleeping dog. Chased away by three shots from a neighbor, the lion returned within minutes, severed the dog’s head, then ran to a nearby shed to eat it. Animal damage control officer Mike Santini of Elba found and shot the cougar in the shed.

In the Idaho Panhandle, two cougars were destroyed last summer in Mullan after dining on one too many pets. Near Sandpoint, two other mountain lions helped themselves to llamas.

“A lot of what we’re responding to is human health and safety concerns, and eastern Idaho has really picked up with incidents,” said Layne Bangerter, an animal damage control officer in Boise. “This is a general trend Westwide.”

In neighboring states, cougars have made the leap from pets to people. In 1992, a woman jogging near Sacramento, Calif., was attacked and killed by a cougar. Since then, people in California, Montana, Colorado and British Columbia have been killed by mountain lions. In addition, those states as well as Washington and Utah report maulings. Idaho, so far, has had no serious human-lion encounters.

As sightings of the secretive felines become more frequent, and as stories increase about their bold behavior, wildlife watchers are trying to find explanations.

Biologists theorize that two things are happening. Human homes are creeping into once-isolated areas inhabited by cougars. At the same time, the laws of nature demand that a burgeoning mountain lion population seek new territories. Dominant toms don’t tolerate others in their territory.

“Big toms will not allow another tom in their territory,” said Jerry Jeppson, an outfitter who guides cougar hunts in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. “They’ll track one down and there will be a fight and there will be only one left.”

Edged out of better territories with booming elk and deer populations, young lions often are pushed into marginal habitat like the outskirts of towns. In some cases, when migratory corridors are blocked, they can end up in the middle of a town.

Research supports this theory. Keith Aune, a research biologist in Bozeman, Mont., has managed more than 50 problem cougars in the past few years. They ranged from 1 to 3 years old, the time when lions are just learning to hunt for themselves. Beecham found the same thing.

Howard Quigley, research biologist for the Hornocker Wildlife Institute in Moscow, said that the young lions are just doing what comes naturally to them, “pushing the edge of the envelope for their survival.”

Aune, who also maps problem lions, says problem lions are showing up in two places: on livestock ranges and in western Montana valleys where subdivisions are encroaching on cat territory.

In California, authorities shot 120 nuisance lions last year. By comparison, Oregon took 67, Montana removed 60, Utah destroyed 17 and Idaho got rid of seven problem cats. Idaho authorities say the actual number of problem mountain lions is higher because, whenever possible, they arranged to have hunters take them.

Livestock killings are at an all-time high this year.

“They’re coming into these herds in broad daylight,” said Stan Boyd of the Idaho Woolgrowers’ Association. “One thing that really worries us is if the bear initiative passes, they’ll be going after lions next.”

An initiative on the November ballot calls for the end of bear baiting, hunting with hounds, and spring hunting. Kathy Richmond, a main backer of the initiative, has said she wants to stop lion hunting in Idaho.

Livestock costs caused by lions and bears broke the budget when the year had barely begun, Boyd said. Idaho Fish and Game gave ADC $25,000 to manage depredation, Boyd said. By the end of the first three months, depredations totaled $61,000.

Lion populations in every Western state are booming. In California, a ban on mountain lion hunting has helped bolster the population. In Idaho and Montana, an abundant prey base has produced more and larger litters with lower death rates.

Beecham guesses that Idaho has 5,000 to 6,000 cougars, about twice the number in 1972 when lions became a game animal. Since 1972, hunting pressure has steadily increased in Idaho and Montana. Each state reports hunters have taken more than 2,000 cats in the past four years.

While there have been no serious encounters between cougars and humans in Idaho, Beecham says he does get reports each year of cougars stalking hunters. He himself has been stalked. So has Aune.

Beecham advises anyone who is stalked to make noise, face the lion, keep from running and look big.

“Raise your hands. Do whatever you need to do to look menacing and just back away from them,” he said. “If a lion wants to get you, he’d get it done before you ever knew about it.”