The Cougar Conundrum by Mark Elbroch

Author:Mark Elbroch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Island Press
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mountain lions are apex predators that are subordinate to other more dominant predators, and this fact influences diverse aspects of their ecology. (Figure created in collaboration with Danielle Garbouchian / Panthera.)

What we have accomplished in the management of mountain lions, given the tremendous uncertainty in our knowledge about the effects of hunting on mountain lions and what a natural mountain lion population might look like, is miraculous. Part of our success, if we are bold enough to call it that, is due, no doubt, to the cat’s own resilience. Part of it may also be the absence of wolves over most of the US. Mountain lion management is a bit like groping in the dark in an unfamiliar room. That said, state managers have done well at maintaining mountain lion numbers, even under heavy pressure to hunt them hard in order to protect ungulates and livestock. A common argument for their success is that the US mountain lion population is still growing. In contrast to the harvest trends we discussed above, many point to increasing reports of mountain lions in the Midwest as evidence that the population is growing. The assumption of state managers is that eastern migrants are extra mountain lions that couldn’t find suitable range in an overcrowded West, so they dispersed eastward into lands without mountain lions instead.

The counterargument is that these rogue mountain lions in the East are descendants of mountain lions that survived the onslaught brought on by European settlement. State agencies across Midwestern and Eastern states record thousands of mountain lion sightings every year, and some of them are verified with field evidence. So, let’s briefly cast our eyes east of states that manage mountain lions into lands where mountain lions once roamed. Can we determine whether mountain lions are expanding eastward to reclaim former range, or have they been lurking in the shadows all along, awaiting people to make their presence known?

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