Lion seasons, Dry ground lion hunting

[M Evertsen]

Just got to thinking, and looking around. It seems that most lion seasons shut down before most of the snow melts in the high country in most places, making it almost impossible for people to do dry ground lion hunting.

I am curious if people know why this is.

A. Is the bear season to much of a conflict?
B. Is there a fear of people catching to many females that may be pregnant or have extremely young kittens?
C. Is it pressure from anti hunting groups to give lions "a break"?
D. Later start due to other big game seasons (Colorado starts after last day of last rifle season, Idaho has a limit during the fall of no hunting with hounds), etc. What is the fear of that, someone ruining an elk hunt. It seems this can be curtailed if houndsmen would use common sense and be careful of where they are hunting, or just police themselves in not hunting when there are a lot of other big game hunters in the area, no need to have a rule prohibiting it, IMO.
E. Fear of over harvest if the season is too long? I know Wyoming seasons shut down quite early often times.
F. Something else I am not seeing?

Just got to thinking of this as I was out today lion hunting thanks to our year round season here. It sure beats tredging through three feet of snow and freezing my behind off. I was able to watch the dogs more, and was enjoying all the signs of spring.

So what are people's thoughts on why the seasons are so short in most areas?

Thanks,

Marcial

[Benny G]

Marcial, I admit that I'm very narrow minded, but I believe that we are living in a time of worshipping predators and caving in to people who don't have a clue about wildlife biology.

[Big Mike]

Most of the shorting of seasons is due to the pressure from the anti's. 15-20 yrs ago Wildlife agencies kind of got themselfs in trouble by not doing a better job of monitering there predator populations. When these anti group came foward and said were are killing too many lions in year round seasons or not regulated enough harvests, wildlife agencies had no concrete population study's to show otherwise. Thus the reason there have been so many studies on lions in the last 15 years.

What Benny said is absolutely correct about living in a time where people are worshipping predators.

[Ike]

One thing that I've learned over my life is we can't group people and come to conclusions about what they are thinking or why they are doing something. Where I live, I remember our wildlife agency having shorter lion seasons with more limited harvest that started back in about 1988. But as the deer herds shrank and evidence was found about depredation on wild sheep herds our state become more liberal with pursuit and harvest seasons. But state agencies do roll with public opinion and complaints and don't ever think they don't. Hunters need to stay vocal and organized to assure their states of their interests and needs, and as long as we have similar thinking employees working for our state agencies we have a chance in being included in the future of wildlife management. If the day ever comes where biologists and conservations officers are made up of non-hunting, anti-hunting ideology we will no longer be part of the system........

Keep'em treed,
ike

[Yard Dog]

If the day ever comes where biologists and conservations officers are made up of non-hunting, anti-hunting ideology we will no longer be part of the system........

I think that day is aproaching faster than most people realize.

I worked for a federal wildlife agency for over 10 years, every year we would get college students that would come and work seasonaly as bio-techs. These students came from areas sush as Boston, California, Minnesota.........You get the picture. Most of them were persuing degrees related to wildlife or land management. Most (not all) had very liberal views regarding wildlife, hunting and land use. Many of them viewed our state and community as backwards or redneck in nature. Many of them had never been out west before and I remember two girls that only lasted 2 weeks as they did not have a vehicle and their duty station was 30 miles from the nearest town, upon leaving they said they thought that there would have been some type of public transportation available...(I told them there were wild horses down by the river)....LOL
Point being that most state and federal agencies have programs such as this and will work college students seasonly for several years then move them into fulltime positions once they graduate. These indaviduals will be your future land and wildlife managers and while we may still have some old school hunter friendly people at our wildlife agencies, over time, we will become inundated with managers that do not share nor support our hunting heritage..JMO

[Ike]

That day will most likely come, but people tend to hire other people who share their values and I don't know a single biologist or conservation officer that is not a hunter. Example: you probably won't see Obama hiring me to a top level position anytime soon............

keep'em treed for as long as possible,
ike

[Yard Dog]

I don't know a single biologist or conservation officer that is not a hunter.

I wish I could say the same....