A Missouri deer hunter lost his hunting rifle, $2,000, and a year’s worth of hunting privileges after illegally shooting a mountain lion from his treestand during the 2024-25 hunting season. The big cat he shot had traveled nearly 800 miles from Nebraska, wearing double ear tags that identified it as part of a research project […]
Tag: mountain lions
Bird flu finds its way into Western wildlife
Last fall, a Clallam County, Washington, resident spotted a young male cougar walking slowly through a field on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. It was the middle of the day — a clear sign that something was off — and he was also skinny and weak, dragging his matted tail in the mud. […]
California couple confided about stuffed mountain lion to fellow fliers, authorities say. They were in for a shock
They were just passengers aboard an airplane, flying over California and having a chat. The couple was relating their adventures in hunting to the pair of fliers in the row ahead of them. Things apparently got cozy, and they confided that they had hunted a mountain lion. In fact, they said, a close relative was […]
Wyoming Lawmakers Tried to Declare Open Season on Mountain Lions. Local Houndsmen Shut It Down
Luke Worthington has chased lions in Wyoming‘s mountains with his ragtag pack of seven hounds for almost 20 years. His 16-year-old daughter doesn’t know what life would be like without the barking and baying, high-energy creatures in her life. But when the Wyoming legislature proposed a bill to allow unlimited hunting this winter, Worthington wasn’t […]
What Did Scientists Learn After Thousands of Penguins Were Slaughtered by Mountain Lions?
In 2007, only three years after the creation of Monte León National Park along the wild coastline of Argentine Patagonia, efforts to protect penguins took an unexpected turn. A female puma was slaughtering Magellanic penguins in droves. Some of these she would eat, while other surplus kills were left to rot. Before long, her cubs […]
MAGA Controlled Wyoming Legislature Proposes Open Season on Mountain Lions and Grizzly Bears
The Wyoming MAGA contingent that now controls the full legislature introduced House Bill 0286, a proposed bill that would strip critical protections for cougars in Wyoming. HB 0286 proposes the following changes: Elimination of hunting zones and geographic boundaries for cougars. Removal of statewide and local mortality limits, allowing unrestricted killing of cougars at any time, […]
Deadly Encounter: Mountain Lion Attacks Spark Controversy
Last March, two young California men were searching for shed deer antlers in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento and were startled by a young mountain lion walking toward them, no more than 10 yards away. Experts say the best thing to do when a mountain lion approaches is to raise your arms to make […]
Fleeing mountain lions and scorched earth: can wildlife survive California’s wildfires?
Beth Pratt has spent her career protecting Los Angeles’ mountain lions, which roam an area currently engulfed by wildfires. These apex predators, also known as cougars or pumas, share a scrubby landscape with lavish private homes and a dense network of roads. When major fires take out huge areas of open space, their options are […]