Frequently Asked Questions

Quick Links to Answers Below:

• What is The Cougar Fund’s mission?
• What are The Cougar Fund’s main objectives?
• Where does The Cougar Fund work?
• With whom does The Cougar Fund work?
• Where does The Cougar Fund get its funding?
• How can I help?
• Is The Cougar Fund an animal activist group?
• Is The Cougar Fund anti-hunting?
• Does The Cougar Fund work with biologists?
• Is The Cougar Fund against state wildlife agencies (i.e. Game & Fish)?
• Does The Cougar Fund take prey populations into consideration?
• Does sport hunting keep cougar populations in check, thereby preventing attacks?
• Does The Cougar Fund want to protect cougars at any cost to human life or safety?
• Are there are already enough cougars or too many cougars in the United States?

Q: What is The Cougar Fund’s mission?

A: The Cougar Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization working to protect the cougar (also referred to as mountain lion, panther and puma) throughout the Americas.

Q: What are The Cougar Fund’s main objectives?

A: The Cougar Fund:

• advocates for cougar management policies based on peer-reviewed science;
• promotes the gathering of sound science;
• educates the public on the value of cougars in nature, the issues surrounding cougars, and how to live & recreate wisely in cougar country;
• calls for the adoption of a sport-hunting subquota on female cougars;
• is against the orphaning of kittens when causes are not natural; and
• protects habitat when appropriate opportunities arise.

Q: Where does The Cougar Fund work?

A: The Cougar Fund is based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but works throughout the United States. We can be reached via e-mail at info@cougarfund.org or call 307-733-0797.

Q: With whom does The Cougar Fund work?

A: The Cougar Fund works with a variety of organizations and individuals ranging from Game & Fish departments on the state and local levels to concerned individuals to independent cougar biologists to other non-profits and community groups.

Q: Where does The Cougar Fund get its funding?

A: The Cougar Fund receives donations and grants from individuals as well as foundations.

Q: How can I help?

A: There are a number of things you can do. Get the Facts. Take Action. Speak Out.

By becoming a member of The Cougar Fund (www.cougarfund.org/join.php), you can join our efforts to accomplish our mission. We will keep you updated on news and developments with e-mail alerts, newsletters and information on our web site. We’ll let you know when critical decisions are being made relating to cougar management policies and the appropriate times to write letters and/or attend meetings. You can also use our web site as a resource to help educate friends, family and neighbors about cougars, the challenges they are facing and how to live/recreate wisely in cougar country.

Furthermore, you can call your state game agency and ask for information about cougar hunting regulations and management plans. You can indicate that you are concerned and believe that sport-hunting quotas for all wildlife, including large carnivores like the cougar, should based on sound scientific, peer-reviewed data. We also believe that expressing disagreement with policies that allow hunters to kill females -- thereby leading to the orphaning and ultimately, the inhumane death of countless kittens -- is very important. Finally, ask them what they are doing about these issues.

Q: Is The Cougar Fund an animal activist group?

A: No. We are an organization that promotes conservation of this large magnificent carnivore on the landscape by not only promoting the use of sound science, but also by providing for education, land conservation, and research.

Our board of directors reflects our broad-based approach to cougar conservation, and includes biologists, activists, artists, hunters, and business people.

We collaborate with the public, state wildlife agencies, sportsmen and other non-profits. We believe the public needs to be better educated in order to ensure public safety and embrace dialogue with all interested parties.

Q: Is The Cougar Fund anti-hunting?

A: No. Hunters serve on our board of directors as well as participate in our work through active membership status. And even though today fewer than 7% of Americans hunt, and while we recognize that hunting is a value-issue, we question the ethics of how cougars are most often pursued, using dogs, radio-telemetry devices and motorized vehicles. These activities also jeopardize the well being of other wildlife, especially ungulate species in critical wintering areas.

The Cougar Fund strives to give voice to the diverse human values towards cougars while providing alternatives to funding issues facing scientists and agency professionals today.

Q: Does The Cougar Fund work with biologists?

A: Yes. In fact, The Cougar Fund has an impressive number of biologists on its board and advisory board: Dr. Jane Goodall (UK), Dr. Marc Bekoff (CO), Dr. Rick Hopkins (CA), and Linda Sweanor (CO), the co-author of Desert Puma: Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring Carnivore.

Beyond our own organization, we are in frequent contact with biologists conducting cougar research in California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Montana as well as state game agency biologists throughout the West and mid-West. We are also in contact with individuals who have done research in South America and Canada.

Additionally, The Cougar Fund actively funds cougar research.

Q: Does the Cougar Fund work with other groups and agencies?

A: The Cougar Fund works diligently to create collaborative relationships with state game agencies, scientist, hunters and conservationists. Through these efforts, The Cougar Fund is able to track and respond to the many issues facing cougars and other wildlife.

State game agencies are mandated with conserving wildlife resources for the public. However, revenue generated from selling hunting licenses provides the major source of funding for these agencies, a dependency which risks compromising the integrity of cougar management.

Q: Does The Cougar Fund take prey populations into consideration?

A: The Cougar Fund is interested in a balanced approach that takes all species into consideration. In fact, we funded habitat conservation that benefits myriad wildlife species, including elk, bison, moose, pronghorns, mule deer, wolves, and grizzly bears. The Cougar Fund also helps fund and supports research that examines other factors impacting cougars and their habitat.

Q: Does sport hunting keep cougar populations in check, thereby preventing attacks?

A: No. Presently, no scientific study has been conducted which supports the hypothesis that sport-hunting cougars safeguards human life. In fact a recent study by conservation biologist, Christopher Papouchis, compared attacks and hunting data in California as well as 10 western states where sport hunting is allowed. Data proved that the random hunting of cougars for sport does not increase public safety.

To the contrary, several states that support a high level of sport take of cougars actually have a higher rate of human attacks than California which does not allow sport-hunting of cougars, but supports more cougar habitat and more humans (by far) than any other western state.

For example, Vancouver Island (a 12,000 square mile island that supports 300,000 people) has nearly 1.5 times the number of attacks than California (no sport-hunting) the third largest state in the U.S. California is 155,000 square miles in size (90,000 miles of cougar habitat) and supports 35 million people, 5 million cattle and nearly a million sheep.

Sport-hunting cougars results in unintended consequences because of their life history strategy of breeding year-round. Therefore, sport-harvest programs throughout the west result in the orphaning of a significant number of dependent young (i.e., cubs that are too young to survive without maternal care). Interestingly, cougars (with a few exceptions of coyotes in some states) are the only animals we hunt in the west when they have dependent young.

Some scientists have noted that young dispersing males are disproportionately involved in both human-safety incidents and depredation incidents (i.e., the killing of livestock or pets); a segment of the population by the way that increases in sport hunted populations. To what degree some levels of sport hunting may or may not exacerbate conflicts with humans is presently untested and thus, unknown. But these facts should illustrate the complex relationships that exist with wildlife populations.

As currently practiced in the west, the primary purpose of sport hunting cougars is to satisfy recreational interest and provide a source of revenue for both game agencies and local communities. For all intents and purposes, we are currently managing for sport hunting cougars and not by sport hunting cougars.

To what degree future research will provide empirical evidence that some level of sport hunting in certain circumstances may reduce some conflicts with humans (e.g. result in increase growth rates for prey species such as deer or elk, reduce depredation incidences, etc.) is not presently known. While there remain many unanswered questions regarding cougar biology and ecology, considerable knowledge has been gained over the last three decades. Based on our current knowledge of the population dynamics of the cougar and its prey, it is quite likely sport hunting cougars will remain primarily a source of recreation with limited opportunities for micro-managing conflicts with humans.

The Cougar Fund advocates management and conservation programs based on sound scientific principles and supportable objectives. This requires game agencies to abandon programs based on personal biases and perceptions and rely on the science of cougars, possibly resulting in more conservative quotas then that might normally advocate. However, as noted earlier, we believe that any sport hunting program that is not explicitly designed to minimize the harvesting of females with dependent young is fundamentally flawed.

As noted by Francis Bacon (father of modern science) more than 300 years ago, if we are to succeed in our endeavors of understanding the natural world then we must put aside our biases and perceptions. Anecdotes and unverified sightings cannot take the place of empirically derived data.

Q: Does The Cougar Fund want to protect cougars at any cost to human life or safety?

A: The Cougar Fund is not opposed to removing individual cougars who on rare occasions may attack people or livestock, but we also recognize that the dispersal patterns of this low-density species have been notably affected by human development, forcing the “ghost cat” to at times traverse human-inhabited landscapes.

The Cougar Fund is dedicated to the conservation and preservation of the species across the western landscape. While one of the more significant aspects of this strategy is to minimize the loss of or fragmentation of habitats and landscape linkages, it is also important to minimize the killing of individual cougars that conflict with our interest (as do many scientists who study this species). We believe conflicts can be greatly reduced by (though not eliminated) through education, advocating the use of best management practices for those of us who live and recreate in cougar country (e.g., sound husbandry practices, put pets in at night, etc.) and by embracing the fact that cougars are an important and essential part of the ecosystem.

Research shows that cougars generally avoid human dominated landscapes (this does not mean they do not wander through areas inhabited by humans, but simply use these areas much less than would be expected) and rarely pose a threat to human safety. Nonetheless, there are a number of prudent measures that all of us can employ to reduce the rather low risk (probably on the order of 1:100 million or more) of an adverse encounter with a cougar even lower. These precautions provide no guarantees, but are merely suggestions advocated by most state game agencies. The only way to completely avoid risk (manage it to zero) is to not live or recreate in areas inhabited by cougars.

Q: Are there are already enough cougars or too many cougars in the United States?

A: Not one state in the American west has sufficient population data on cougars. The American Cougar was once the largest-ranging land mammal in the Western Hemisphere and inhabited all 48 continental United States. Today, viable populations are found in just 12 states. In 11 of those, cougars are hunted for sport. There are generally no restrictions on hunting females, except in a few cases.