from the Bismarck Tribune
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Mountain lion gets new high-tech tracking collar
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Apr 10, 2008 - 04:06:18 CDT
By RICHARD HINTON
Bismarck Tribune
The state's only resident collared mountain lion is sporting new neckware that's more forthcoming with information.
A task force of wildlife managers recaptured the male lion last week in its Badlands home territory and replaced its aging radio collar with a high-tech global positioning system collar that provides three locations a day. The old-school collar gave a location only when wildlife managers flew over the Badlands and located the cat.
"The better the information, the better we can manage the population," Dorothy Fecske, NDGFD furbearer biologist, said Wednesday.
Crews from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks and Theodore Roosevelt National Park went after the lion March 30 and April 1.
The mountain lion is the first subject of a cooperative research effort between TRNP and NDGFD to study the ecology of lions, Fecske said.
"The Badlands is a unique region for mountain lions, and they haven't been studied before," Fecske said.
Mike Oehler, the TRNP wildlife biologist, is leading the research effort in the park.
He plans to go after more cats to collar, and the park has smaller collars for younger lions "if we have the opportunity," Oehler said.
"You never want to pass up an opportunity to get a collar on an animal," he said.
He is in the process of putting out bait and setting out cameras.
"If we get an animal coming in, we will set a snare out," he said.
The foot snare has a transmitter that will alert park service officials when it has been triggered.
"We can immediately go down there and work the animal," Oehler said.
If the cougar proves bait-shy, Oehler will try in other areas.
"We want cats as part of our system. From the park's perspective, they are one of the top-level carnivores. Having them is important to us," Oehler said.
Although cage traps are another option for capturing cats, plenty of juniper trees in the collared cat's location upped the likelihood it would tree. South Dakota joined the effort to provide the hounds and expertise to help ensure a safe capture, Fecske said.
Thus, houndsman Jack Alexander brought dogs to the chase. "He's treed hundreds of cats for research in South Dakota," said Fecske. Wildlife biologist Steve Griffin also joined the team.
NDGFD pilot Jeff Faught located the cat near a road the first morning.
"The idea is to get close to it and surprise it so it trees," said Fecske.
But the plan didn't work.
"The cat outsmarted us and got away from the dogs," Fecske said. Oehler was part of the crew on the first day.
"I had a chance to see the critter running before the dogs at one point," he said.
Mountain lion 1, human-and-dog team 0.
The cat was nowhere near a road the second morning, and the crew hiked in. The hounds located the cat, and it sought refuge in a hole instead of treeing.
"We were able to safely get a dart in it," Fecske said.
An examination estimated the cat's age at 4 years, and it weighed 153 pounds.
"He had a full belly, and he is a good, healthy animal," Fecske said. Fecske took measurements and a blood sample for cooperative disease work.
The mountain lion was caught in a foot-hold trap in December 2006 north of Medora, where it was tranquilized, collared and released.
The crew finished its work and was walking out about an hour and a half after encountering the cat.
Since then, Fecske has gotten 14 locations, and the cat has moved several miles.
"Both days were hard, with a lot of hiking," Fecske said. "We hiked a few miles between the two days."
With three positions a day coming from the new collar, wildlife managers will be able to find the lion's kill locations by identifying clusters of points, and a crew can go in and identify what the cat is eating, Fecske said. And researchers will be able to better understand the size of an adult male cat's home range in the Badlands.
"That will be a lot of information over a year," Fecske said.
"There is a huge gap in our knowledge base," Oehler said.
Information from harvested mountain lions provide information on genetics and other things.
"But not the day-to-day basics: the size of its area and what they are using for food," Oehler said. "That's just good, basic ecological information for managing the animals."
(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)
