Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop - Carnivore ...

Ninety-three percent of agencies had a standard or defined protocol/policy that field
personnel followed when responding to public safety threats involving cougars; the one
agency that did not was in the process of developing one. When asked what constituted a
public safety threat, all responding agencies provided a definition ranging from: any
perceived human threat or conflict (UT, WA); habituation to human (AB, ID, NM, NV,
WY) to an unprovoked aggressive/predatory behavior toward a human (AB, AZ, CA,
CO, FL, MT, OR) (Table 8). When responding to public safety incidents, all agencies
sent a conservation officer to the scene, in many cases accompanied by other personnel
(Fig. 9).
Fifty-three percent of agencies reported they may consider relocating cougars involved in
public safety situations. Of the agencies that may use relocation, 75% said it depended
on the nature of the situation, half said relocation was rarely used, and 25% said
sometimes they relocate due to public pressure (Fig. 10). Of the factors that were
considered when making this determination, apparent health of the cougar and location of
Proceedings of the Ninth Mountain Lion Workshop
218