More Jackson Hole Wildlife: Cougars on Refuge

(2-25-99)

Although the Jackson Trio of wolves continues to live on the National Elk Refuge, visitor attention in the last week has been drawn to the mountain lion that have appeared on Miller Butte in the Refuge just north of the small city of Jackson, Wyoming.

The Jackson Hole News reported that last Saturday a crowd of 500 people gathered along the National Elk Refuge road to watch the mother lion and her three kittens who have made a home in a small cave on the the Butte. The lions have made a kill almost every day according to the News. Most of the small herd of bighorn sheep on the butte have moved elsewhere.

The crowd was enthusiastic, the News quoted photographer Diana Stratton commenting on the biological completeness of the area. "There were lions, the wolves were down by the elk, I could hear trumpeter swans. Above were golden eagles and bald eagles. On the butte were bighorn sheep and coyotes. It was really amazing."

Some appeared worried because it is mountain lion season in Wyoming until March 31, but the quota of five lions from the Jackson area has already been filled, so the hunt is closed.

The Jackson Hole Guide, the town's other newspaper, told that Joe Bohne, regional wildlife management coordinator for Wyoming Game and Fish said that there are cougar almost every year on Miller Butte and the nearby canyons. The year the cougar are just in a more visible place. Both papers had photos of the lions on the front page. Several world famous wildlife photographers were among the crowd.

Meanwhile, lions are not so popular with the politically-harassed Idaho Department of Fish and Game. They have instituted an unlimited hunt on lions in nearby SE Idaho despite protests from local lion hunters that they are wiping the local lions out. Hunters killed 44 cougars in Southeast Idaho during 1997-98. As of Feb. 23, 1999, they had killed 94. The unlimited hunt is proposed again in 1999-2000. While the number of lions taken is not limited, the season is only in the winter. Almost all lions are killed after being treed by a hound chase. An increasing number of hunters chase lions, but don't kill the treed lion. Instead they photograph the cat.

The SE Idaho cougar are blamed by some deer hunters for the low mule deer population in SE Idaho. Numbers of deer plummeted after several severe winters. The deer population has not rebounded. Ranchers are also happy with the new  cooperativeness of Idaho Fish and Game. Every year the lions kill a couple of livestock.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is also suggesting a longer spring and fall black bear season. The Department is in dire financial condition with a decline in hunting license sales and a refusal by the state legislature to raise resident license fees. The crisis will probably not be dealt with until a new crop of political appointments are made by Idaho's new governor, Dirk Kempthorne,  to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission. Many see the department's plight as the result of it standing up to ranchers, the timber industry and the Port of Lewiston, Idaho, in years past. Ranchers and farmers dominate the Idaho legislature. The Port of Lewiston is angry because the Fish and Game Commission said a naturally-flowing Snake River through Washington State is necessary for salmon and steelhead trout runs to recover.
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In other news, a Utah man was fined $500 for killing two coyotes in Grand Teton National Park near Kelly just north of the Elk Refuge. Dan Whitelock was reported to have shot the coyotes from his truck just south Kelly, but he was turned in by a Kelly resident who saw him shoot the coyotes. It's legal to kill coyotes any time you want in Wyoming, but no wildlife can be shot in a national park except for the annual GTNP elk hunt.

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