Open Season On Wyoming Mountain Lions Would Be Overkill, Hunters Say

Declaring open season on mountain lions would give Wyoming’s mule deer a much-needed break, said a legislator pushing the idea – but some hunters argue that would lead to a slaughter of the big cats. 

“It’s not really about mountain lions. It’s about mule deer. People are really concerned about the mule deer numbers in our state,” Rep. Mick Schmid, R-La Barge, told Cowboy State Daily. 

He’s sponsoring House Bill 286, which would lift most of the current restrictions hunting for mountain lions. 

That’s a bad idea, some Wyoming houndsmen – hunters who pursue mountain lions with hound dogs – told Cowboy State Daily. 

“I think just stripping all hunting regulations is something that could end up in eradication, which is never conservation,” said Neale Jones of Jackson.

Houndsman Cody Vivatson of Pinedale launched a petition against HB 286 and said that it had roughly 500 signatures as of Wednesday. 

Trophy Game Species

Mountain lions are classified as a trophy game species under Wyoming Game and Fish Department hunting regulations. They may be hunted only with a license and during specific seasons.

Each mountain lion hunt area has a predetermined mortality quota – or the number of mountain lions that may be killed in that area per season. 

Once that quota is met, lethal hunting in that area shuts down, regardless of how many days are left in the season, or how many hunters are left holding unfilled tags. 

Vivatson said that in some of his favorite hunt areas near Pinedale, the quotas were already raised after the brutal winter of 2022-2023 wiped out thousands of mule deer. 

So, there’s no need to target even more mountain lions, he said. 

“If anything, we’ve seen a reduction in mountain lion numbers. It (mountain lion hunting) has been kind of tough lately,” he said. 

During its 2023 session, the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill allowing houndsmen to keep pursuing mountain lions and letting their hounds tree them after the kill quotas are filled. 

During the “pursuit season,” hunters are required to call their hounds off and let the mountain lions escape alive. 

HB 286 would eliminate the pursuit season and allow for year-round lethal mountain lion hunting and trapping, at any time, night or day.

Under current regulations, some big game hunters like to carry a mountain lion tag, in case they come across one of the big cats while the mountain lion season is also open. 

HB 286 would change that too. Hunters with elk, deer or antelope tags would be allowed to shoot any mountain lions they see – with no additional tag for a mountain lion tag required. 

Under the bill, hunters would still be required to report all mountain lion kills to Game and Fish

Saving Mule Deer

Schmid said his goal isn’t to eradicate mountain lions, because he appreciates the part they play in the ecosystem.

He doesn’t think lifting the restrictions would lead to an outright slaughter of mountain lions either. 

“It’s just an effort to take a few more mountain lions every year,” he said. 

He argues that is needed, because mountain lions are one of the main predators of mule deer, which haven’t been doing well in Wyoming.

Even before the epic winterkill of 2022-2023, mule deer number were plunging, he said. 

At one time, Wyoming had over 500,000 mule deer, Schmid said.

Game and Fish annual reports indicate that there were 345,000 mule deer in 2019 and 293,000 in 2021, he said. 

During the 2022-2023 winter, another 15% of Wyoming’s mule deer died statewide, he said. And in some areas, such as among the prized Wyoming Range mule deer herd, winterkill losses soared to 80% or more. 

That’s why it’s important to help mule deer in every way possible, Schmid said. 

And increased mountain lion hunting is “part of the answer” to that need, he said. 

Mountain lion populations seem to be ballooning in some parts of the state, particularly the Black Hills region, Schmid said. 

The big cats are notoriously elusive, but lately, it has been increasingly common for big game hunters to spot them, he said.

He added that mountain lions are particularly hard on “trophy class” buck mule deer. 

Except during the rut (mating season), those big old bucks hang out alone, he said. 

“Trophy class mule deer bucks are solitary. They’ve got only one set of eyes and one set of ears to warn them of predators. Big toms (mature male mountain lions) are the biggest killer of trophy mule deer bucks,” he said. 

Some Targeted Elimination Already Allowed

A statewide rollback of mountain lion hunting regulations might not be needed, because statues already allow for mountain lions to be killed outside of regular hunting seasons, under specific circumstances, retired federal game Warden Tim Eicher of Cody told Cowboy State Daily. 

Under a section of the statutes, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission can designate areas where animals normally classified as trophy game can be killed as predatory animals, without a license.  

That provision allows for the culling of mountain lions or black bears in areas where they’re killing livestock, or hitting big game herds too hard, Eicher said. 

Houndsmen Want To Preserve Tradition

Jones said that taking a more measured approach – such as adjusting mountain lion kill quotas in certain areas – makes more sense to him than loosening regulations all over the state. 

It’s estimated that there are about 2,000 mountain lions in Wyoming, and killing too many could “do damage that it could take a lifetime to fix,” he said. 

Vivatson said he’d hate to lose the opportunity to pass the houndsmen’s traditions down to younger generations. 

He’s worried that if big game hunters are allowed to shoot any mountain lion they come across, they could end up killing “females with kittens” and crater the mountain lion population.

“I let probably 90 percent of the lions I tree go, an only harvest the big males,” he said. 

Do Mountain Lions Control CWD?

He also questions how big of a bite mountain lions are taking out of the mule deer population, at least in his area. 

“Right now, I’m getting read to run a lion in an area where there are no deer at all,” he said during a telephone interview early Wednesday. “The only tracks up there are mountain lion and moose.”

And from what he’s seen, mountain lions in the area are gobbling mostly smaller animals. 

“A lot of these lions we’re killing have porcupine quills in them. I think they’re eating mostly porcupines, coyotes and rabbits,” he said. 

He added that mountain lions might help control Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – which is a major killer of deer. 

The disease is spread through prions, or malformed proteins that cause fatal neurological disease in deer, elk and moose. 

Those prions can pass through the digestive systems of most predators and scavengers that eat infected deer and end up in those animals’ scat. That puts the prions into the vegetation and soil, where they can continue to infect more deer, even years later, he said. 

But studies indicate that the prions are “depleted” in mountain lions’ digestive systems, he said. So if a mountain lion eats a deer sick with CWD the potential for infection ends there. 

“That’s kind of a crazy, interesting fact about CWD,” he said. “If they’re trying to save these mule deer, that ( HB 296) is not the route to take.”

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.