Colorado to Reduce Bears and Mt. Lions
Mule Deer
Contributors to this thread:
It's about time!
http://www.gohunt.com/read/news/colorado-plans-to-eliminate-predators-to-save-mule-deer
Good job Colorado!
Probably to reduce competition for the wolves.
No shit... I met a guy who was a govt trapper in Wyoming and said they figured there were 2000 Mt Lion in Wyoming a deer a week do the math that is 104,000 deer and not counting all the stress on winter-range deer..
The Pikes Peak Sheep herd has cratered...my guess is it was a cat...but the game warden said its a mystery...not a cat...I said how do you know...he really did'nt have an answer
This is part of a much loarger and on going study in the roan. This will be interesting to see how it works. I know last spring I watched a boar on the roan kill 2 fawns. Then 4 days later he killed a full sized doe at a pond.
Unfortunately by the time season rolled around he had moved onto some private land and was feeding in a large slide that I could not get too.
Why waste time? They should try it statewide and see if it helps!
If you pull a mountain lion out of his home range,another will fill in,in short order.If there is a decent population of them,it can happen in a couple weeks.This will happen with bears as well,especially mature bears.Make a vacancy and they will come.Taking out the lions and bears is a good idea but doing it in a small area may be the flaw in the study.
I heard from a very reliable source that they have found that in areas populated by wolves, the mountain lions kill 2 to 3 times as many deer and elk as they normally would to stay alive. This is because the wolves will find a lion's buried kill and eat eat it.
Thornton, I haven't seen the study but I believe the premise is true. While hunting lions we've found wolf tracks following lions many times. We came to the same conclusion that wolves were tracking the lions hoping to take their kills.
In the winter a lion will eat for over a week on an average deer. He'll come back time and again till it's consumed and then hunt. Lions are much more efficient predators than wolves and aren't actually hunting all the time. If wolves start taking their kills they are forced to kill more from necessity.
Pretty interesting dynamic.
"I heard from a very reliable source that they have found that in areas populated by wolves, the mountain lions kill 2 to 3 times as many deer and elk as they normally would to stay alive."
Anecdotally, we saw that with lions and pigs in CA - the pigs scavenged the lion kills so the lions needed to go back to hunting sooner.
There was a study in Mendocino County to determine the causes of fawn mortality which I understand documented that a lion killed a bear that feeding on a deer the lion had killed.
Spent quite a while in the woods hunting cats and studying their habits.
Coyotes also get on lion kills and cause the lion to kill more deer.
Worst is when a momma lion is teaching her kittens to kill deer. They knock down a lot of deer in the spring just to teach the kittens and don't eat them.
Bears also kill deer, but nowhere near as many as the cats.
Lions love sheep meat and tend to hang out around the sheep in the winter.
It will be tough to keep the predator numbers down in that area for enough time to make a difference. Lions, bears and coyotes will move long distances for food and will fill the void very rapidly.
Good,solid information,Treeline.
LINK's Link
Some interesting viewpoints in the comments. Kind of shows what we are up against as hunters. Couldn't stand it and had to jump in the fray...
Possibly some good stuff for others to use in my comments.
Yeah we have over 6,000 cats and 30,000 bears.
I was on a sheep survey in the Gegornios with one of CA DFW's biologists and he did his PhD study on lion on sheep predation. His study showed that it was mostly the toms that fed on the sheep and that the females rarely took sheep; their diet was mostly deer.
Some unbelievable comments coming in over on the GoHunt article.
I, for one, have a very difficult time understanding anti-hunters. Just trying to educate them a bit, if they can get past their emotion and understand.
"I for one have a very difficult time understanding anti hunters"
Pictures I took at the Commission Meeting where the issue was the reintroduction of wolves into Colorado.
I asked three activists if they hunted? NO
I ask if they supported the CPW in any way to help in the management of big game in Colorado? NO
I ask if they had even purchased a Habitat Stamp, to support Wildlife Habitat? They did not know what the HS was.
Lots of emotion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my best, Paul
Lots of emotion but little support of wildlife and understanding the big picture of wildlife management.
Paul
Just saw a lion going to the store in Oak Creek. Big one. He was going across a freshly cut hay field just on the edge of town. Within a quarter mile of houses and town. In broad daylight...
Treeline - I was getting ready for a good joke after reading your first sentence, then I realized you were going to the store not the lion.....
Paul- Great points and good questions to ask these brain dead Ignorant fools. They sure put a lot of work into those signs don't they? I wish there was a way to go back in time so they could see themselves as adults at these meetings when they were kids. I think they would be embarrassed about their behavior and what they have become. I cannot for the life of me imagine putting on an animal hat and going to a meeting as a valid way to get my point across. Anyways, It's almost September..............
The guy in the hat gave me a laugh...freaks
Nice pics Paul. I'm pretty sure I don't WANT that lady in the top one giving me a hug, that's for sure!
Laugh now but these people get issues on ballots and we lose hunting. Main reason why spring bear is gone forever. They are also going for no bear or mt lion hunting and wolf reintroduction. I don't find any of it funny
Seems like Freaks eventually get their way in a lot of issues.
If you just watch and listen to them, you know their not working with a sound mind.
Posted a follow up to this meeting in a different title so we can discus in more detail...
Let me know if you have any questions.