Our other good friend at Cougar Rewilding, Helen Mcginnis supplied us with a map showing breeding Cougar populations East of the Continental Divide................A.New study is underway focusing on how lions in the prairie regions of Montana(Charles Russell National Wildlife Refuge) are making a living in habitat that they historically occupied prior to European colonization of the region

Study tracks mountain lions east of Divide

By KARL PUCKETT

Researchers are using GPS and radio collars to track the movement of elusive mountain lions in the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in the state's first study of lions east of the Continental Divide.

The study was launched to see whether a hunting season is warranted on the refuge.

It also will provide important information on what the expanding eastern Montana lion population is eating, such as big game and livestock, refuge officials said.

"Our gut feeling is it's a stable population," said Bill Berg, acting refuge manager.
Montana has a mountain lion hunting season, but no hunting is allowed on the federally managed refuge. Last fall, after a 15-year draft management plan was released for the 1.1 million-acre refuge, the agencies received inquiries from the public about whether a lion hunting season was in future plans, which prompted the study, Berg said.

Before hunting can be considered more scientific and biological, data is needed to support it, Berg said.
"They're a secretive animal and not much is really known about them," said Randy Matchett, a refuge wildlife biologist.

Previous studies of mountain lions have occurred west of the Continental Divide, which has mountainous areas with the highest density of lions, but little information exists on lions in more open portions of eastern Montana, Matchett said. "It's sort of been ignored," he said.

Explorers Lewis and Clark spotted what they described as a "panther" on the eastern edge of what is now the CMR refuge on May 16, 1805. "In the early part of the day two of our men fired on a panther, a little below our encampment, and wounded it; they informed us that it was very large, had just killed a deer partly devoured it, and in the act of concealing the ballance as they discovered him," Lewis wrote.

Mountain lions first were killed for a bounty in the state beginning in 1879, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.In 1971, they were classified as a game animal by the Legislature, and have regained much of their historical distribution in the state except on prairies.