Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

EVALUATING MOUNTAIN LION MONITORING TECHNIQUES IN THE GARNET
MOUNTAINS OF WEST CENTRAL MONTANA
RICH DeSIMONE, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 1420 East Sixth Avenue, Helena, MT
59620, USA, email: rdesimone@state.mt.us
Abstract: Research began in 1998 to document characteristics of a hunted mountain lion
population and develop survey techniques to detect trends in lion abundance. Efforts to capture
and radio-collar mountain lions have focused on the 850 km 2 eastern half of the Garnet
Mountains where lion hunting was suspended from 2000 to 2002, allowing the lion population to
increase. Lion hunting will resume, reducing the number of lions in the study area. Fluctuations
in a known lion population will provide the opportunity to determine the sensitivity of population
indicators to changes in lion abundance. Mountain lion population trend indicators being
evaluated include lion track survey-routes and statewide telephone surveys of houndsmen and
deer hunters. Eleven lion track snow-survey-routes totaling approximately 105 km were
established in 2000 throughout the study area to determine the relationship between lion track
density and the actual density of lions. Track densities ranged from 0 to 2 per 10 km.
Preliminary results indicate that the densities of lion tracks recorded in different portions of the
study area correlate with the densities of lion home ranges. A statewide telephone survey of
houndsmen began in 2001 with approximately 300 houndsmen interviewed annually.
Houndsmen took fewer days of hunting to tree lions (3 days) and encounter a lion family group
(8 days) in northwest Montana, while in eastern Montana houndsmen took 10-35 days to tree a
lion and 35-45 days to encounter a family group. Starting in 2001, the statewide telephone
survey of deer hunters included asking hunters if they observed lions. The percentage of deer
hunters observing lions ranged from 4% in northwest Montana to less than 1% in eastern
Montana. Seventy lions have been captured and radio-collared. Eleven of 26 radioed kittens died
during their first year of life. Malnutrition due to orphaning was the most common cause of
death. Hunters harvested adult and subadult lions at a high rate. In portions of the study area
where hunting was allowed, hunters harvested an average of 63% of the radioed lions annually
from 1998 to 2001. Overall, 36 of 38 radioed lion deaths were human related.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
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