Some new mountain lion hunting guidelines in Arizona disappoint activists

New guidelines on hunting mountain lions for the next five years have disappointed activists who saw it as a chance to make the rules friendlier to mountain lions.

Activists at an April 1 meeting with Game and Fish commissioners sought more restrictions to mountain lion hunting, such as the number of mountain lions that one hunter can kill, requiring a mandatory course for sex identification and a shorter harvesting season. The guidelines cover fall 2023 through spring 2028.

“Why do people kill mountain lions?” Cheryl Shearer, who spoke during the call to the audience in favor of stricter guidelines for hunters, asked the commissioners during a call to the public. “I want our Fish and Game Department to protect wildlife, not just maximize opportunities.”

But a majority of those who spoke at the meeting were supportive of the current guidelines. Hunters described tales of their hunting experiences and family traditions. Children also took to the microphone and told the commissioners about their own experiences shooting small game with their families, making memories they hope to pass on to their own kids one day.

“We harvest these animals for food,” said Ryan Smith, an avid hunter who hopes to hunt the 10 big-game species in Arizona. He adds that his family is still eating from a mountain lion he harvested in December.

“But there is also an enjoyment” in hunting, he said. “And this is heritage that we built off of for centuries and that we continue to portray and continue to pass on to our children.

Smith runs @hunt_az on Instagram, which has more than 52,000 followers. He uses it to inform the hunting community about the guidelines, policies and hunting etiquette.

Biologists, wildlife managers, supervisors and people across regions in Arizona work together to make research-based recommendations on the guidelines that cover a variety of wildlife.

The guidelines manage hunted or trapped species, and are revised every five years .

“We use the public feedback that we get to modify anything, so the hunt guidelines are kind of like the biological and the social parameters that we use,” said April Howard, a predator, furbearer and large carnivore biologist at the Game and Fish Commission. “So if the public wants us to change something based on a social value, and it’s within the biological parameters — it wouldn’t impact the population — then we could possibly make those changes.”

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Activists were pleased with a change that mandates hunters to bring in their hunted mountain lion carcasses so that the agency can determine the age and sex of the lion, capping the harvesting of female mountain lions to 25%.

They also adjusted the definition of a female adult mountain lion to 2 years of age rather than 3 years, citing research done across the West. Something which activists called a “small positive change,” as some mountain lions show evidence of nursing at younger ages.

Logan Christian, a conservation advocate for the Mountain Lion Foundation, had hoped the agency would close mountain lion hunting from August to December to “prevent killing female mountain lions at times when they are having kittens who are highly dependent on their mothers,” he said.

“During these times, mothers often travel without their kittens, leaving the kittens in a den as they search for food, so there is no way for hunters to know whether a mother may have kittens nearby when they kill her,” he said.

Christian, along with Kate Scott, the executive director and president of the Madrean Archipelago Wildlife Center, were advocating for a reduction in mountain lion hunting to no more than 14% for independent mountain lions, which only counts adult and adolescent mountain lions. However the guideline passed maintained its 14% hunting limit for the total mountain lion population, counting kittens, adults and adolescents.

“Most of my friends are not anti-hunting,” Scott said. “What we are is realistic about how the huge human population is growing and growing and growing and compressing the spaces where animals can survive.”

Prior to 2018, the seasons were more wide open, there were no harvest zones and the department saw a female harvest of about 49%. Once they implemented management zones and a harvest threshold, that number decreased to 42%, where it currently sits. Harvest zones are the areas in which hunters can harvest, or kill, a mountain lion and the amount of mountain lions allowed for harvest. “

The department is conducting a statewide five-year mountain lion study that looks at causes of mortality across different habitat types. The department is currently in the second year of the study. It has collared 56 mountain lions with nine mortalities and 34 active collars, which allow for real-time tracking and data for their research.