Ongoing Research on Utah's Cougar Population is being conducted by Utah State University along with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resoources................. 2000-4000 animals exist in the State with major concerns that the annual hunter take of 300 Cats will lead to a significant decline in their population

Utah studies its Cougars to keep population healthy

By brett prettyman

Cougar Research has been  taking place for more than 15 years on the Monroe Mountains in south central Utah and the Oquirrh Mountains on the west side of the Salt Lake valley. The research is being conducted by Utah State University with funding and direction from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The research was intended to help state biologists design methods to produce mountain lion population estimates in Utah, where they live essentially anywhere mule deer can be found.

Other cougar research angles include determining preferred prey species and the rate of kills, tracking reproductive rates and dispersal and how lions cope with advancing human development.
"We have watched homes push up against the Oquirrhs during the life of the research," said Michael Wolfe, a professor of wildlife sciences and wildlife science adviser at USU. "We are looking at where they go when this happens and what animals do when that urban wildland interface advances."

 235 individual lions have been captured and collared since 1996 (91 on the Oquirrhs and 144 on the Monroes). One of those 235 lions became well-known in the wildlife world. F31 was captured on the north end of the Oquirrh Mountains on Feb. 9, 2005, and fitted with a radio/GPS collar. She was tracked by radio signal until March 3, when she disappeared. On Feb. 10, 2006, biologists with the Colorado Division of Wildlife let the Utah researchers know F31 had been killed by a hunter near Meeker, Colo. She was more than 220 miles due east of the place she was originally collared. Stoner said the GPS track showed she traveled an actual distance of more than 833 miles.
F31's trip ranks second to a female lion in Canada that was tracked at 227 miles in a straight line in documented cases."She is a pretty famous lady," Wolfe said.

Kevin Bunnell, mammals coordinator for the DWR, says there are roughly 3,000 mountain lions in the state "plus or minus 1,000." The elusive nature of the big cats, compounded by their penchant for nocturnal activities, makes them difficult to count. Bunnell acknowledges that there are fewer lions in Utah than there were 15 years ago. "We got pretty aggressive with them in the mid-1990s," he said. "We increased hunting permits following some pretty severe winters in the early 1990s that reduced deer densities."

Mountain lions are often a popular scapegoat for the decline of deer herds in the West. Cougar management in Utah is suggested by an advisory group comprising lion hunting groups, researchers, domestic livestock representatives and groups hoping to protect the species. Final management is decided by the Utah Wildlife Board, and the final plan is often subject to public input and special interests.
"There is no evidence that lions are the cause of a decline in deer," Bunnell said. "There is some evidence that showed they can keep a deer population in decline from rebounding. One study showed a seven-year time lag when lions are around."

Bunnell said there is an annual average cougar harvest in Utah of about 300 animals. At least one group, and not the one most people would suspect, says that is too many. "Groups like Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife are driving for more and more lion permits, blaming them for the problems with mule deer," said Chad Coburn, a board director with the Utah Houndsmen Association (UHA). "We have every evidence that we have massively addressed and reduced the lion population, and deer populations are still in decline. We are concerned about the lion population in Utah."Coburn said one of the biggest concerns is the harvest objective aspect of cougar hunting in Utah. Once a unit reaches its target number of lions killed, it is shut down. That leads hunters to take animals they may have let go, including young females, if they had time to do more hunting. "There is a mentality that if I don't kill something today I may not get to because the unit could be shut down tomorrow," he said.

Members of the UHA are disappointed that after a lengthy process of setting a new Utah Cougar Management Plan, it is already being ignored by wildlife officials. "We got the new plan adjusted to get rid of all the downfalls of the last one," Coburn said. "We were going to see what happens and revisit the plan in three years, but not six months later we reopen it and decide to kill more for the deer. What was the point of the eight weeks of meetings to come up with the plan?" Coburn is referring to the recent emergency order to the 2010-11 Utah Cougar Guidebook increasing the number of permits on three units — a total of eight — from DWR director Jim Karpowitz.
"We fought the plan and fought the continued increases," Coburn said. "It is easy to blame it on too many lions and make it look like you are trying to do something by killing more of them."