Going After the Big Cats

Sportsmen are armed with three major arguments as they seek to persuade the California Fish and Game Commission to conduct an open hunting season on mountain lions in California for the first time since 1972. They cite declining deer herds, continued loss of livestock and two cougar attacks on small children in an Orange County wilderness park.

But in a fact sheet on the proposed hunt, state Fish and Game Department experts say: “Sport hunting of mountain lions cannot predictably reduce livestock and domestic animal depredation or predation on wildlife species such as deer. Nor can it guarantee public safety.”

Thus the only justification for a hunting season on lions is to give the sportsmen the chance to bag a trophy for the den or recreation room at home. That is not justification enough so long as there is legitimate dispute about the size and health of the lion population in California.

A moratorium on the game hunting of lions expired a year ago, and the Fish and Game Commission directed the department to develop a mountain-lion “management” plan for its consideration. The department proposes to issue 210 permits in five hunting areas covering much of California for a 79-day-long season beginning in mid-October. The commission will hold hearings on the proposal in Long Beach on Friday, in Redding on March 6 and in Sacramento on April 3 before it decides whether to go ahead with the hunt.

The Fish and Game Department estimates that the lion population has grown from 2,400 in 1972 to a minimum of 5,100 last year. The lion is not classified as a threatened or endangered species, and the department contends that killing fewer than 210 of the elusive cats--it is certain that not all hunters will be successful--will create no threat to the lion’s survivability.

Environmental groups question the department’s 5,100 estimate; they contend that the number is far lower than that. Because the cat is so shy and roams such a broad territory, an accurate census is extremely difficult to achieve.

The question, then, boils down to this: Do we know enough about the lion population in California, and its ability to survive a variety of environmental pressures, to permit 210 sportsmen to track the cats with dogs until the winded animals are cornered and shot?

The answer is no.