Mismanagement via sport hunting has not only killed thousands of cougars for no good reason, but it has actually increased the small risk that they pose to the public and to livestock.
Since the 1970s, when cougars (aka pumas or mountain lions) were declared a
game species, state wildlife agencies in 10 western states have allowed tens
of thousands to be killed by sport hunters. Kill numbers have increased over
time, with currently over 3,200 cougars slaughtered each year. Wildlife
managers have long argued that sport hunting is necessary to control
cougars' numbers, reduce the risk of attacks on humans, protect livestock,
and augment deer herds for hunters. But a newly released, peer-reviewed
study that tested the effectiveness of this practice shows the opposite to
be true.
Published this month in PLOS ONE, the study is titled "The elephant in the
room: What can we learn from California regarding the use of sport hunting
of pumas (Puma concolor) as a management tool?" Its authors, biologists John
W. Laundré, Ph.D., and Christopher M. Papouchis, M.S., saw that --in
contrast to the other western states--California has not had a sport hunt on
cougars over the same time period, which provided a prime opportunity to
test the effectiveness of sport hunting as a management strategy. If sport
hunting was effective, they reasoned that California should have
significantly higher cougar density, human conflicts, and cougar
depredations on livestock, while also having lower deer densities.
To test for these differences, the authors systematically analyzed over 20
years of data obtained from state and federal agencies. But in each case
they studied the authors found no significant difference between California
and the other states. In short, California did not have more cougars than
other states; it actually had a lower density than four other states.
California had one of the lowest per capita rates of human conflicts. There
was no difference in the average loss of livestock in California and the
other 10 states. California deer densities were the second highest densities
across the West.
The authors concluded that, after over 40 years of killing cougars for
sport, western states have not achieved their desired outcomes. In fact,
like more regional studies have (links below), the authors demonstrated that
sport hunting has actually produced the opposite effect. For example, data
from Oregon demonstrated that the more cougars they killed with sport
hunting, the higher their estimated cougar population. In Utah and
Washington, the authors found higher kill rates of cougars by sportsmen
resulted in higher human-cougar conflicts. Several states experienced
significantly higher losses of livestock that correlated with higher levels
of cougars killed. Likewise, in numerous states more cougars being killed
were shown to correlate with lower, not higher, deer densities.
"Our analysis shows that management objectives used to justify sport killing
of cougars are not supported by available data," said Laundré. "So they
should not be used as a reason for continuing this practice. To do so
undermines public confidence in wildlife management and trust in government
institutions."
The authors recommend these states reevaluate the use of sport hunting as a
management tool and base their approach on sound science and public
transparency. They suggest that in the absence of empirical support for
management claims, states should refrain from justifying cougar hunting as
anything other than providing recreational hunting opportunities.
"Mismanagement via sport hunting has not only killed thousands of cougars
for no good reason, but it has actually increased the small risk that they
pose to the public and to livestock," said Brooks Fahy, executive director
of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy organization. " Wildlife
agencies have consistently ignored peer-reviewed field studies which show
this. The new study published in PLOS ONE serves notice to state agencies
that they are responsible for amplifying these risks and must change. It
would also be nice if they acknowledged that t he majority of people don't
want cougars to be killed."
Cougar Studies
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