Proposed new rules would ease limits on bear, cougar hunting
Brandon Griffith of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish moves a cougar into a cage in 2010 before releasing it into the wild. Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
Posted: Saturday, June 6, 2015 9:00 pm | Updated: 9:24 pm, Sat Jun 6, 2015.
The state Department of Game and Fish is proposing rule changes that would allow more black bear hunting, along with cougar trapping and snaring on private property, a plan that has drawn criticism from wildlife conservation advocates, particularly in light of a significant drop in bear kills last year that some fear may be due to a population decline.
A June 3 draft of the department’s proposal states that bear harvest limits warrant an update “based on new data on population densities from a three year study in the northern and southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Sacramento Mountains, and Sandia Mountains.” The proposal goes on to state that the state’s cougar numbers are derived from data collected from research projects spanning the last three decades.
But a spokesman was unable to provide recent biological data on the species or research on their populations in New Mexico.
Dan Williams said the State Game Commission “is not drawing on anything at this point. They’re waiting on a study that’s ongoing, that’s about to be concluded.”
Department officials did not immediately respond to further requests for information and comment.
Debate over the controversial proposal will resume next Saturday during a meeting of the State Game Commission in Taos. It will be the last in a series of public meetings before commissioners cast final votes on the matter in August.
The proposed rule for bears would allow more hunting in some of the state’s Wildlife Management Areas. The Department of Game and Fish also suggests that boundaries of some of the Wildlife Management Areas be adjusted to combine regions that have similar bear habitats. Modifications of the bear hunting season also are under consideration.
Since 2011, the state had seen a drastic increase in the number of bear kills, including losses due to depredation and other incidents, such as road accidents. Last year, however, saw a significant drop in kills, from 777 during the 2013-14 season to 559 in 2014-15.
Under the department’s proposed cougar rule, private landowners would be allowed to use traps and snares on their property. Local animal conservation groups have unsuccessfully pushed the State Game Commission to ban trapping on public lands. Traps and snares are allowed throughout the state with some restrictions, including close proximity to public trails.
Cougars were declared a protected species by the state in 1971, and Game and Fish commissioners began setting harvest limits in 1999. Hunters are allowed to kill up to 750 cougars every year, including 303 females.
But according to Game and Fish biologist Elise Goldstein, who spoke at the State Game Commission’s May 7 meeting in Farmington, hunters are harvesting only about 31 percent of the maximum allowable number of cougars. That figure has led to pushback from some lawmakers, she said.
During the legislative session, Republican Rep. Zach Cook, an attorney from Ruidoso, sponsored a bill to remove cougars from the state’s list of protected species. He also criticized Game and Fish, saying it was doing an inadequate job when it came to the cougar harvest.
“He told us we needed to make harvest goals,” Goldstein said.
Jan Hayes, founder of the conservation group Sandia Mountain Bear Watch, said in an interview with The New Mexican that she’s gravely concerned about the long-term effects of the bear hunt increases that the state has already implemented.
“They’re now allowing as many sows to be killed as the overall, complete number of bears that were previously allowed to be killed,”she said.
The most recent estimates place the state’s bear population at 5,000 to 7,000, Hayes said, and up to 2,800 can be killed. “Out of those 2,800, the average for the [female] sows is at about 38 percent,” she said. “All good bear biology tells you that you should never, ever be killing more than 30 percent.”
Hayes said the state’s bear biologist has said female bears in New Mexico tend to give birth to their first cub when they’re about 4 1/2 years old. “It’s a very slow-reproducing species, which makes them one of the most vulnerable.”
That’s why the steep drop in last year’s reported numbers of bear kills is worrisome, Hayes said.
“They don’t have any true population numbers for each mountain range, which is what they should have before they set these numbers up,” she said.
The chairwoman of wildlife conservation for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, Mary Katherine Ray, said the state is resorting to more traps and snares for cougars because the big cats are much harder to hunt. However, she said, those methods also mean animals of all stripes can be caught and injured indiscriminately.
She added that there’s no way for the public to examine the biological basis the commission is using to establish quotas for bears or cougars. “It’s one thing to take a percentage of the population that’s sustainable, but if the number you’re using to apply that percentage to is nonsensical, then your quotas are nonsensical, too.”
She also pointed to an increasing push from sportsmen who want to see fewer cougars preying on big game.
It used to be that livestock interests in New Mexico were upset because a carnivore might threaten their herds, Ray said. “Now, we’re seeing hunters upset because a lion or a bear might kill a deer.”
At the Farmington meeting in May, Game Commissioner Robert Espinoza remarked, “If you’re taking more cougar … then more deer translate into more [hunting] licenses, which means money for the state.”
According to Goldstein, Saturday’s meeting in Taos will include a presentation of updated biological data for both animal species. Input from commissioners will be incorporated into a final draft of the proposed rules, which will be posted online. The final rule recommendation will also be posted before the commission’s final vote in August.
Comments on the rules can be submitted through July via email at DGF-Bear-Cougar-Rules@state.nm.us or by calling 888-248-6866.
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