Utah Is Culling Cougars to See If It Helps Deer. Houndsmen Aren’t Happy About It

Wildlife managers in Utah have begun culling mountain lions in six of the state’s sport administration models as a part of a new study. The target of the three-year research is to gauge the impacts these focused removals could have on deer populations. They’re making an attempt to find out whether or not killing extra mountain lions ends in extra mule deer.

“We’ve seen predation as a possible limiting think about many models,” Kent Hersey, Utah Division of Wildlife Sources large sport tasks coordinator advised the state wildlife fee throughout a board meeting on Thursday. “When lion predation exceeds seven % or so, deer survival may be very tough. If we will’t obtain inhabitants survival, the inhabitants goes down. That creates additive mortality, and we need to see what occurs once we take away additive mortality.”

This “additive mortality” is cougars, which depend on deer for round 80 percent of their weight loss program. The DWR says the six looking models within the research space have increased than eight % predation, with some models seeing double-digit percentages in recent times.

The follow of killing mountain lions (and different predators) to profit ungulate populations stays a controversial topic amongst wildlife managers. And though Utah shouldn’t be the primary state to undertake such an experiment, the response from hunters and trappers there was combined. Some teams are already talking out in opposition to the research, whereas others are supporting it or taking a wait-and-see method.

“The Utah Houndsmen Association doesn’t assist this research,” UHA’s outgoing president Cory Huntsman stated throughout the fee’s public testimony session in January.

Houndsmen, in fact, play an vital position in protecting Utah’s cougar populations in test and studying the species. As do trappers, who additionally harvest them. And whereas bounties on large cats have been eliminated again within the Nineteen Sixties, when the species achieved regulatory standing, Utah made it simpler for hunters and trappers to manage cougar populations in 2023 by legalizing lion hunting year-round. The DWR’s new multi-year effort ups the ante by including state company trappers to every of the six sport administration models below research: Boulder, Monroe, Stansbury, Pine Valley, Wasatch East, and Zion.

It’s all this further stress that doesn’t sit proper with Huntsman and different houndsmen, who at the moment are asking the DWR to launch maps of the place the state’s traps and snares are situated.

“We’ve had hounds killed by snares,” Hunstman stated. “Outfitters are scared in order that they’re not looking the lions. They’re counting on state trappers. With a warmth map, you may get the outfitters in there as effectively. You’ll give us somewhat peace of thoughts to the place we will flip our canines unfastened.”

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Different looking teams have come out in assist of the research, which began with the DWR collaring mule deer within the six models throughout late 2025. The Utah Wild Sheep Foundation is offering $150,000 in funding, whereas Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is contributing one other $150,000. The Mule Deer Foundation helped with collaring in December and is now ready to see the outcomes of the research earlier than taking a stance on it. MDF president Greg Sheehan says he was a part of that collaring effort, and that regardless of a light winter thus far, he seen the physique fats on most of the does was extremely low.

“We acknowledge cougars can have a inhabitants impact in some situations, however in different situations they don’t,” Sheehan tells Out of doors Life. He appears to be like ahead to studying the outcomes of the research and the way managers “will go about implementing modifications based mostly on these outcomes.”

Not surprisingly, among the similar wildlife teams who pushed again on the 2023 regulation to broaden mountain lion looking have spoken out strongly in opposition to the brand new research. Predator advocacy teams just like the Mountain Lion Foundation argue that cougar populations are already in decline, and that different elements play an even bigger position than predators in suppressing Utah’s mule deer populations.

“Habitat high quality, winter severity and human stress in the end decide deer restoration not predator eradication,” MLF social media coordinator Anna Wright advised the fee earlier this month. “What these removals reliably do trigger is instability.”

Riley Peck, the incoming director of the DWR, acknowledged in that very same assembly, nonetheless, that the state company is required to do one thing about the downturn in mule deer populations that researchers in Utah and different Western states have seen in current many years.

“We’ve a mandate from the state legislature that tells us we’re going to have a look at cougar administration and take particular motion when predators may need a top-down impact on a few of our large sport species,” Peck advised these in attendance. “That places us in an attention-grabbing spot as we are attempting to handle for abundance and existence of cats for many who need them and handle for an enormous sport species that’s primarily their prey.”

Hersey famous throughout his presentation that mule deer declines are a top-up drawback in roughly 70 % of the state — that means populations are struggling as a consequence of a lack of habitat, vegetation, and different environmental elements. He stated the DWR considers the opposite 30 % of the state to be a top-down drawback, which implies predation is the limiting issue.

These science-based issues, nonetheless, don’t take public opinion under consideration. And at a time when some Western states have thought of outright bans on cougar hunting, lion hunters are discovering themselves in the midst of a bigger debate.

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“The optics are horrible,” Huntsman warned in his testimony. “A research like this, with the optics it brings on Utah, I simply don’t assume we have to convey this battle to Utah any quicker than it’s already coming.”