The Issues

Perhaps the most often-heard justification for killing cougars comes from hunters or hunting outfitters, who make their living guiding hunts for game species such as deer, elk, sheep, and even mountain lions. They argue that if man doesn't control mountain lion populations by hunting, then the lions will eat all the game.

Understanding such an idea requires that we take a long look back through history, when white men first explored and settled what is now the United States. For tens of thousands of years, predator and prey lived in balance, each serving the other's existence. The cougar, in its role as predator, weeded out unhealthy, sick, weak, and old animals, maintaining an optimum population of game species which reproduced and had few sudden die-offs due to disease or overpopulation. In return, the cougars ate well, and survived.

Mountain lions, with few natural predators, keep their numbers in check through an intricate social system, a hierarchy which involves harsh competition in the wild. Ungulates' (hooved species such as deer and elk) populations are likewise affected by their food source, mainly grasses. For example, in times of drought, calf populations will reflect the hardship of the land and lack of new forage growth in a lower reproductive and survival rates. It is simply impossible for any animal population to prosper and reproduce on its own if an adequate food source is not available.

Always striving to seek out the habitat with the most abundant food sources, mountain lions patrol and defend home territories which encompass as many as 150 square miles. Although many females may exist within one large territory, only one male will have the privilege of wandering among them, hunting and breeding with the resident females of his area. Should a competitive male happen to challenge his position, a fight will ensue, resulting in either the death of one of the males or the inevitable departure from the prized territory. The defeated cat is then left to find a new territory, not occupied by another lion.

This sort of control within the species is referred to as interbreed killing and explains how and why lions and their prey existed in balance for tens of thousands of years together before the intervention of man. This natural system of checks-and-balances ensures that cougars do not overconsume their resources: the deer and elk which comprises their diet.

When the European immigrants began to settle what is now the United States, they brought with them the attitudes from their countries, killing off what they believed would be in direct competition with their own survival. Skeptical of the ways and successes of the Native American Indians who lived fairly harmoniously among many wild animals, taking only what they needed, ate, and used most white frontiersman saw any other meat-eating animal as a direct threat to his survival in this new and wild land. Perhaps he feared if he left the predators unchecked, they would devour all the game he needed to support his family, and maybe even his family as well!
Fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood are part of our collective storytelling background. In this fable, the Big Bad Wolf (its species forever the center of fear-based frontier stories) tries to eat Little Red Riding Hood. It is from early impressions as a child that such tales, however frivolous and entertaining they may be, stick in our minds, calling forward an innate fear toward wild, sharp-toothed animals.

It is likely that the first European settlers shared the same sentiments and storytelling history as what endures today; it was in this historical context that present-day attitudes and behaviors were established.

But old habits die hard. Today, a new generation of frontier mentality has taken over, in the form of subdivisions and ranchettes covering what were once vast expanses of wide open lands. The greatest casualties of this sprawling development are the native resident wild animal, plant, and avian species who, having lost their homes, struggle to make a place for themselves in this new world where they no longer have a place.

For a predator such as the cougar, the loss can be gradual, though no less threatening to its long-term survival. Considered an "umbrella" or "keystone" species, the cougar's presence measures the health of the ecosystem where it exists. Since the cougar lives at the top of the food chain, all animals beneath him must be present in order for him to survive. The presence of the cougar represents an intact ecosystem that is healthy and replete with all species upon which the cougar and its prey need to survive. Wherever there is cougar, there exists the essence of the wild.

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