The Arizona Game and Fish Department
says the state’s estimated population of 25-hundred to three-thousand
mountain lions is not endangered or scarce. (Corinna Stoeffl/Pixabay)
February 15, 2016
PHOENIX – Thousands of rare
mountain lions have been killed in the past decade by trophy hunters,
according to a new report. The Humane Society of the United States lists
Arizona among the top five states where the big cats, also known as
cougars, have been hunted and killed.
Wendy Keefover, carnivore protection
manager with the group, says the majority of mountain lions are killed
so they can be mounted for display, or their pelts used for rugs.
“Twenty-nine thousand mountain lions killed over the past decade, which
is a jaw-dropping number given how rare these cats are on the landscape
because they require really big home ranges,” says Keefover.
The plight of big-game animals was
publicized last year when “Cecil,” an iconic African lion, was killed in
Zimbabwe by an American trophy hunter, setting off a firestorm of
controversy. The Humane Society report says of the total number of
mountain lions killed between 2005 and 2014, almost 2,900 were in
Arizona, fifth among the states behind Idaho, Montana, Colorado and
Utah.
Keefover says trophy hunters or their
guides often use packs of radio-collared dogs to corner or tree the
cougar, making for an easy kill shot. Her group believes most states
that allow big-cat hunts, mostly in the western U.S., do not properly
monitor their mountain lion populations.
“The states are doing a really poor job
of managing this very iconic, rare species,” says Keefover. “Arizona
allows just basically unlimited persecution in some of the
game-management units, a year-round season, multiple bag limits and
things like that.”
The Arizona Game and Fish Department
says the state’s estimated population of 2,500 to 3,000 mountain lions
is not endangered or scarce, and that their only known threat is human
encroachment.
Big-game hunting is a
multi-billion-dollar business worldwide, and many hunters believe that
their sport contributes to conserving the species.
Mark Richardson/Judy Steffes, Public News Service
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