Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

MYSTERY, MYTH AND LEGEND: THE POLITICS OF COUGAR MANAGEMENT IN
THE NEW MILLENNIUM
RICK A. HOPKINS, Live Oak Associates, Inc., 6830 Via Del Oro, Suite 805, San Jose, CA
95119, USA, email: rhopkins@loainc.com
Abstract: The cougar as America’s cat is a large, ghost like predator that usually hunts game as
large as or larger than it is. As Teddy Roosevelt noted in the late 1800’s, “No American beast
has been the subject of so much loose writing or of such wild fables as the cougar”. More than
100 years and dozens of scientific studies later, we are no better off in unraveling the “loose
writing” and in some cases, the management objectives for this predator, than we were at the
beginning of the twenty century. The life style of the cat has long resulted in polarized attitudes
toward the development of policies for its management throughout North America. The general
“truth” that has evolved with wildlife managers regarding increasing cougar numbers throughout
the West over the last 2 to 3 decades is believed to be born from 30 years of research. While
numbers of cougars may have increased in portions of their range over the last 2-3 decades, the
general perception that cougars are more abundant in the western U.S. is based not on empirical
data, but one based more on oral traditions passed on from one wildlife professional to another.
Cougar management in the last two decades focused on the impact of prey populations and
depredation of livestock more than on direct encounters with humans. However, an increase in
human attacks in the 1990’s has not only heightened public awareness of cougars, but appears to
have explicitly shifted management in some western states to focus more on “controlling” the
species. Lost in this debate and the objectives of the management of the species is the
preservation of those elements that will truly lead to its conservation. California represents an
interesting living lab, as cougars have not been sport hunted in this state since 1972; it also
supports one of the largest cougar populations in the U.S. if not the largest, and clearly supports
the largest human population. The lessons learned in California can serve as a model for
continued efforts to focus management objectives on the conservation of the species and not
solely on equating management with harvest as is so often done.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
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