I know jack [bleep] about Mtn Lions.
Are they like coyote or hogs in that you can hunt the crap out of them and kill a pile of them and they just bounce their population right back up if you dont keep hammering them?
Would killing a bunch one year make a big dent?
Killing a bunch would make a quick dent that might take years to fill. Population-wise lions ain't like coyotes nor do they have as many young. With good dogs, snow machines, gps collars, good tracking conditions, they can be knocked back, if allowed.
Lions reproduce slowly, maybe 1-2 kittens that survive more than a few months, every other year, max for adult females. I've never seen a female that had more than two kittens with her. Adult males kill young kittens when they get the chance.
Probably as much as anything that boosts the lion population, in states that have pursuit seasons, is most houndsmen only take males. When you take an adult male out of the picture more kittens survive and disperse.
Lonny;
Top of the morning to you sir, I hope your part of Idaho is getting some sun this morning like we are.
It's a tough thing to read about the young fellows getting attacked like that, my prayers are with the family and friends dealing with it.
To be clear I'm the furthest thing from a cougar anything, but have known and do know some houndsmen as well as try to keep up to date with our ungulate populations which of course are affected by predator numbers.
As you mentioned, the hunters typically take males and big ones at that.
We had a 2 cougar a year limit a decade or more back as the MoE decided there were too many, but then again it was the same MoE that banned grizzly hunting so there is that.
If you've ever talked to a bio who was involved with tracking collared cougars, some of them run huge loops of territory. One that comes to mind that I was told about went well into Washington in run that would have been at least 100 miles north to south, but less east west as it was circling the valley more or less.
Lately the populations here seem to have dropped off some and as a guess on my part and a wild one at that Lonny, the only thing that might have caused that is we've had the wolves move in big time on the mountain behind the house.
Prior to that the houndsmen would take at least one or two big toms within less than half an hour of our place, for sure though depending on the conditions you've noted such as snow, the dogs in the pack, etc.
As far as attacks go here in BC, I want to say they're not unheard of with 5 deaths over a century, so not nothing, but certainly our black and grizzly bears attack and also kill many more people here than the cats.
Thanks for your thoughts, they line up with what we've learned up here as well.
Dwayne
