COUGAR KITTENS EMPERILED BY WYOMING GAME AND FISH DEPARTMENT
The fate of two cougar kittens is in the hands of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) following their controversial decision to trap and remove the kittens’ mother, whose home range includes the Cache Creek drainage in the Bridger-Teton National Forest (a popular wilderness recreation area near Jackson Hole, Wyoming). The female cougar was trapped on Monday, January 23. The kittens, estimated to be between 5- and 7-months old, have been alone for almost three days.
In a statement released Thursday, The Cougar Fund called on the WGFD to immediately return the cougar mother to her home range. "To risk the life of this cougar family based on fear is unreasonable, unscientific and unfounded," said Cougar Fund development director Lisa Rullman.
Further jeopardizing the cat family's chance of survival, the WGFD also confiscated the kills the mother cougar made and was feeding on with her young. “This cougar is what we consider your 'model wild citizen.' She was doing everything right, hunting natural prey to feed her family—not stalking humans or domestic animals," said Rullman.
"The normal behavior of a female cougar with kittens and kills in good habitat is to remain put. Extensive movement puts her offspring at risk," said Rick Hopkins, cougar biologist, ecological consultant and president of Live Oak Associates. "The scientific literature is clear; sightings of cougars in cougar habitat is not a metric of risk, even if the cougar habitat abuts human landscapes."
What is unfortunate in this situation is that residents in Cache Creek and East Jackson have been known for years to feed deer. This unnatural concentration of deer most likely lured the cats to the residential area. Teton County strictly forbids the feeding of wildlife as stated in:
Article III NATURAL, SCENIC, AGRICULTURAL, AND TOURISM RESOURCES PROTECTION - TETON COUNTY SECTION 3230.Wild Animal Feeding
A. Findings. The feeding of those animals recited in Subsection 3230.D, Prohibition, below by humans creates one or more of the following risks:
1. attracts ungulates to residential areas, which poses a significant threat to human safety and domestic pets;
2. attracts large predators to residential areas, which poses a significant threat to human life or domestic pets;
The Cougar Fund also emphasized in their statement to the WGFD that if the state agency responsible for wildlife management is concerned about human safety, they should take a more measured, scientific approach, including issuing appropriate warnings to the public and working with the Forest Service to close the area to human activity and recreation. The Cache Creek drainage has not yet been designated a winter closure area, unlike hundreds of acres that are closed annually to protect sensitive wildlife during the grueling winters typical of the northern Rocky Mountains.
"Considering this week’s heavy snowfall coupled with the vulnerability of being hungry and defenseless, the likelihood that the kittens will survive is bleak,” says Rullman. "Their only fighting chance is that the WGFD return the mother cougar to where she was trapped and leave her to find her kittens.”
Cougars, also called mountain lions and pumas, have been wiped out from over half their native U.S. range. The last cougar the WGFD attempted to relocated from Cache Creek died after its capture and release in 2007.
Contact information:
Lisa Rullman
307-733-0797
HYPERLINK "mailto:lisa@cougarfund.org" lisa@cougarfund.org
Wyoming Game and Fish Department—Mike Boyce
307-733-2321
Rick Hopkins
408-281-5885
rhopkins@loainc.com