KING 5’s Alison Morrow reports.
Several organizations have filed a petition against WDFW, asking the state to reverse its recent decision to increase the quota for cougar hunting due to the presence of wolves.
One of those leading the challenge is Gary Koehler, a former cougar specialist with WDFW. In 2000, Koehler and his team wanted to know how cougars and humans successfully live beside one another. He described the time as one filled with "cougar paranoia." Though they knew cougars were widespread in the hills near Cle Elum, few ever saw the elusive predator. "Cougars are very territorial," Koehler said.
KING 5 was there soon after the research started. Biologists tagged and collared cougars with GPS, helped by students at a middle school nearby in a unique program called Cougars and Teaching (CAT). "It was amazing. She was right there in front of us. We were able to touch her," Lizz Stewart said.
Stewart was in 8th grade at Walter Strom Middle School back then. Her teacher, Trish Griswold, chose students with good grades who expressed interest in field work. A decade of her classes participated, studying cougars up close. "Layers and layers of muscles that are so powerful, you're amazed," Griswold described.
Biologists named the cougars after the students. "And Jane occupied an area from this area to this drainage over here," Koehler explained, pointing to Lookout Mountain near the Teanaway River.
They found that cougars cover a lot of land. One male protects 150 miles, and they'll fight any new adult males that try to move in.
It's internal population control - cougars regulating their own numbers. But the researchers found something odd happens when a lot of adult males die off at the same time. Younger, more immature male cougars move in. Territory changes, along with behavior, increasing conflict with animals and humans. "There's a vacancy there. There is a hole that needs to be occupied," Koeher said. "You've got basically regime change in the cat world."
It's why Koehler's research set the state's hunting policy. Hunters could only kill 12-16% of cougars each season. Any more than that, the research showed, would throw off the balance of pack politics.
But that was all before a new predator moved into Sam Kayer's ranch land. So far, he's lived beside cougars without losing any cattle. "No," Kayser said. "They're around here. We see them and hear them."
Recently, however, he's seen signs of the predator that's moving into cougar land. Wolves are making their way west. Once nearly extinct, they've established packs east of the Cascades and their numbers are growing.
In some parts of Washington, they're killing cattle. WDFW sent an alert Friday that two more adult cows were killed in Stevens County by a collared wolf. "I want to believe there's room out here for all of us," Kayser said. "The guys up in the northeast part of the state, they're taking a screwing."
Ranchers like Kayser worry that if the two predators are forced to share the same space, prey will run out and their livestock will be next.
Cougars in his area now live beside the Teanaway Pack. "We enjoy them. We don't want them all gone," Kayser said. "We also don't want to be gone either." But hunting wolves is not allowed. They're still protected, and in some areas, endangered. Cougars are not. "This is not an approach or attempt to get one species a thet expense of another," said Washington Cattlemen's Association Vice President Jack Field said.
Field's members want to protect their investments but can't do much against wolves. So, the state Wildlife Commission turned to cougars instead, nearly doubling the percent allowed for hunting in areas with wolf packs.
Instead of the 12%-16% quota set after Koehler's research, commissioners voted 7-1 to increase the cougar take quota to 21% in three regions east of the Cascades. "There's going to be turmoil, uncertainty, as to how they're going to divide their landscape," Koehler said.
Kohler's research took 10 years to finish. The new cougar hunt policy came without a similar study. In fact, after a spike in cougar sightings reported to the state in the mid-2000s, complaints have dropped significantly in recent years.
According to state officials, their biologists approved the change. They don't believe it will cause long term issues with cougar pack behavior. In a statement sent to KING 5, Commissioner Miranda Wecker wrote: "The Commission was motivated to listen to the communities who feel most directly affected by the presence of predators. That must include those who share the landscape with cougars, bears and now wolves. Many of them feel tremendous anger and resentment that their views and interests seem to make so little a difference when wildlife management policies are set. The Commission action did not jeopardize the health of the state's cougar population while slightly increasing hunting opportunity and offering communities who feel beleaguered some respect, relief, and a sense of empowerment."
Because of the outcry against the decision, WDFW officials will revisit the issue for next year's season. "If it's a cougar management issue, it's a cougar management issue," Koehler said. "What we found here is good science, solid science, sound science."
For Koehler, managing one animal by killing another is bad science. He believes wolves will kill cougars and additional hunting would kill more, resulting in a possible oppression of packs, a migration of immature male cougars, and with them, increased conflict with humans and livestock.
"'When you get another predator coming in, is there another research question?' That's what my kids would be asking if I brought this up in the classroom," Griswold said. "I think you need to have good research before you make decisions."
Some call it the new rule a necessary balance, while others claim the rule is human politics complicating the wild's. "The politics of the cat, that's what we are changing," Koehler said.
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