New Mexico current cougar harvest report

[Mike Leonard]

http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/recreat ... cougar.pdf

Take a look at the most recent New Mexico cougar harvest report. Pay special attention to the total kill and then what they say is the total sustainable mortality. Season will be over in 2 weeks. Do you think they used accurate data when they set up these quotas? This is a joke!

[sheba]

Mike, Utah DWR and NM DWR must be working together.

Utah DWR is good at one thing- "managing a species to extinction"


Craig

[Cowboyvon]

How could you find out the age of the lions harvested?

[Mike Leonard]

They have the pre-molar tooth of each one but I doubt they would disclose this (WINK) highly scientific data! LOL!

[Lil Joes BigGame hounds]

I know what you are saying Mike but would it make you feel better if we got a bunch of snow through out the winter and they closed each zone. Did they kill anymore lions this year than the previous year?
Where I hunt it was closed by killing to many females (agin). I know a few guys that did the killing and they are the ones that hurt the population. Its that hard headed way of thinking "If I don't kill her someone else will". That is the DUMBEST thing I have ever heard of. I know some of these guys will read this and I hope they think about it next year when they have that hunter in the truck with them. Try to be the bigger man and look for that tom track. I'm no saint but I haven't seen a female die in 5 years and hope its at least 5 more.

[Big Mike]

If you want the teeth records keep the pelt tag # when you get your lion tagged. You can contact R Winslow(cougar biologist) and he can give you the info. Ussually they wont have the results until late summer or fall from the previous season.

I disagree with Mike a little on the quotas. There is research that backs what the quotas are. Are they correct? My gut feeling is no, But all i have to base that on is my gut feeling and experience as a hunter. Were the previous quota's correct? Again I say no but i have nothing to base that on other than my experience as a hunter and my gut feeling. There is no way ANY STATE can correctly estimate a lion populations. It is near impossible because densities can change a bunch in different areas of the state. No models are going to to be 100% correct.

The bigger picture is how did this level of harvest affect the lion populations. That is question that cant be answered for a couple of years. If you research the data you will find what we harvested this year is about what we harvested each year before the quotas started. So if you look at the big picture if we are harvesting the same amount we did 8 years ago have the lion populations changed that much? With the last few years of a female quotas shutting seasons down the lion populations have grown. I can base this on amount of lions to be found and amounts of dispersing lions, and numbers of mature toms but its still just a gut feeling. A few local lion populations are going to decrease but its not enough in my opinion to be overly alarmed about. Cont'd

[Big Mike]

If you look at a lion population from a managers point of veiw and not a hunters. Lions are great survivors and really prolific breeders. When a lion populations decrease the amount of young that survives increases and immigration increases. So knowing this as a manager gives some wiggle room for harvest numbers. If a lion populations decreases to much all a manger has to do is lower the quotas and the lions will bounce back in a few years.

On a side note to the quota system. i have seen more of the extremely large class lions killed this year than any other year I can recall. There was even one caught in the desert country that was a big as the brutes than come from the north. I find that an interesting side effect of the female quotas

[TomJr]

Read the fine print down near the bottom. They are managing for a population decrease.

[Mike Leonard]

BIG MIKE: SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE GAME WARDEN

You get it , you just can't say it!

[Big Mike]

Haha Mike, guess ive finally been brain washed! Well we can agree to disagree.

[matt123huntinglion]

well if all them big mike stop killing all bears so hunters can work dogs here in new mexico we could make dogs not out laws