Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

2 STATUS OF MOUNTAIN LION POPULATIONS IN ARIZONA · Wakeling
take).
2. Provide recreational opportunity for
3,000 to 6,000 hunters per year.
3. Maintain existing occupied habitat and
maintain the present range of mountain
lions in Arizona.
Species-Specific Strategies
1. Maintain a complete database from all
harvest sources, through a mandatory
check-out system, including age, sex,
kill location, etc. to index population
trend.
2. Conduct a hunter questionnaire
biannually.
3. Evaluate the management implications
of population and relative density
estimates.
4. Implement hunt structures to increase
and direct harvest emphasis toward
areas with high lion populations, and
where depredation complaints are
substantiated, and evaluate the
effectiveness of these efforts.
5. Determine population numbers and
characteristics on a hunt-area basis.
6. Increase public awareness of mountain
lions and their habits, to reduce
conflicts with humans.
7. Implement the Department’s Predation
Management Policy.
In addition, management direction is
provided by species management guidelines
and hunt guidelines. In October 2000, the
Arizona Game and Fish Commission
approved the predation management policy
that provides the agency guidance as to
when and how to engage in predation
management.
Mountain lion management has changed
as a direct result of biological investigations
into predation effects. Mountain lion
predation is being documented as a factor
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
that may be regulating prey populations
(Ballard et al. 2001) in some areas of
Arizona, to include bighorn sheep (Ovis
canadensis) (Kamler et al. 2002) and
pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
(Ockenfels 1994a, b). These prey
populations are at low levels, and reducing
predator populations is likely to allow those
prey populations to increase in number
(Ballard et al. 2001). The standard bag limit
for mountain lions has been altered in
specific areas to allow for the harvest of 1
mountain lion per day until a predetermined
number of mountain lions are removed that
equal about 50-75% of the estimated
mountain lion population within that unit, at
which time the bag limit reverts back to the
standard bag limit of 1 mountain lion per
calendar year. The only exception to this is
in the southwestern portion of the state
where if even a single mountain lion is
taken, the hunt area will be closed.
Multiple bag limits were implemented in
Units 13A and 13B in 1999, 16A South and
18B South in 2001, 22 South in 1999, and
Units 21 West, 28 South, and 37B North
will be implemented this year. Research
studies in Unit 22 South on bighorn sheep,
that included investigations into nutrition,
disease, and predation, indicate that the
multiple bag limit on mountain lions in that
area, with increased effort by sportsmen to
harvest mountain lions, seems to be
positively influencing desert bighorn sheep
recruitment and adult female survival. To
implement a multiple bag limit on mountain
lions, biologists must identify a prey species
that has been reduced due to mountain lion
predation (e.g., a declining population below
management objectives) or a management
action that is likely to be impacted by
mountain lion predation (e.g., a planned
translocation) to initiate and identify what
management objectives must be met (e.g., 3
years of 50:100 lamb:ewe ratios) before the
multiple bag limit is removed. Because this