N.M. Officials Set Limits
On Cougar Kill Allowance

ALBUQUERQUE —(AP)— Limits will be placed on the annual number of cougars that can be killed across New Mexico for the first time in state history.

Both conservationists and hunting guides had doubts about the state Department of Game and Fish decision, which was intended to better regulate the big cat population.

Based on a 10-year survey, the department carved the state into 10 zones and gave each its own goal of how many cougars should be killed. A total of 176 cougars may be hunted statewide — the number killed last year and well above the six-year average of 140 hunted. The bulk, or 53, will come from southwestern New Mexico, the largest of the 10 zones.

The decision, reached during a two-day meeting in Albuquerque that ended last Friday, also extends the hunting season from October through March. It previously ran December through March.

"This is not a compromise but an application of the study's results," said Santiago Gonzales, chief of wildlife for the state Department of Game and Fish.

Ideally, the ceilings, which state officials hope will be reached, will better regulate the cougar population, Gonzales said.

Four of the zones seek to decrease the number of cougars, another four will try to maintain the population and two seek a natural, self-regulated number of animals.

Officials will likely tinker with the limits in the future to influence population levels, Gonzales said.

Once a zone has reached its cougar limit, the area will close the following Thursday.

Elisabeth Jennings of Animal Protection of New Mexico considers the ceilings a good start. However, she expressed some reservations about the standards, noting the department chose last year's kill rate, the highest in the past 14 years, as the annual ceiling for the future.

Some hunters applaud the standards. "It's not a knee-jerk, gut-level reaction" but the application of a scientific study, said Larry Caudill, a member of the New Mexico Sportsmen club.

Some 1250 adult cougars prowl throughout New Mexico. And there's no current need to preserve the animal in New Mexico, however conservation is always necessary, Gonzales said.

Hunting groups and ranchers contend there are too many cougars.

In his first 20 years of hunting in New Mexico, Charlie Poore, president of the Northern New Mexico Safari Club, says he saw one mountain lion. But in the last seven years, Poore says he's seen more than 20 of the animals.

"We're seeing this explosion of cougars," said Poore, who advocates a longer cougar hunting season.

Cattle ranchers worry the quotas aren't high enough, said Caren Cowan, executive secretary of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association.

"We're seeing mountain lions in people's yards and in their corrals. That's indicative that there are too many lions out there," she said.

"If they're getting that close to people, sooner or later a person is going to be killed," Cowan added.

Also, the population of deer has dropped, providing another sign that there's too many cougars, she said.

Once hunted nearly to extinction, cougars are on the rebound in the West.

Cougars rarely feast on pets or children, but as their numbers are increasing, so are their attacks.

Of the 10 fatal cougar attacks on people recorded since 1890 in the United States, half were in the past 10 years. Nonfatal attacks also are on the rise, as are reports of cougars preying on pets and livestock.

In the state of Washington, things have gotten so bad that at least one law enforcement officer is recommending people ignore the law on cougar killing.

Thurston County Sheriff Gary Edwards is advising residents to shoot cougars, even if the cats don't appear threatening.

Edwards, whose county includes the city of Olympia, has said residents should shoot cats who prowl on or near their property. He's also told deputies to shoot cougars on sight.

"I'm not going to wait until they eat some kid to shoot them," Edwards said. "y concern was for the safety of children, not the management of cougars."

But Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Steve DeMiero, who supervises Thurston and neighboring counties, says Edwards is giving the wrong advice.

"If someone's life is in danger, they have a right to defend themselves," DeMiero said. "Just to have someone go up and shoot a cougar is illegal. You need a license to do that."

Washington law allows people to shoot cougars on their property if the animals are threatening their livestock or humans.

Edwards' comments come amid rising cougar sightings statewide. Washington's cougar population is estimated to have doubled in the past decade, to at least 2500, officials say.

Thurston County has had eight cougar sightings so far this year, compared with five for all of 1997, sheriff's officials say. The sightings have occurred in both rural and urban areas.

Wildlife officials attribute the population surge to several factors, including habitat encroachment and the 1996 passage of Initiative 655, which banned the hunting of bears and cougars with hounds.

DeMiero says his department's response time has been damaged by department cutbacks, which reduced the number of wildlife officers serving the area this year from three to one.

Still, DeMiero urges residents to use restraint.

"I just don't believe that the first option should be to kill game," he said.

But Edwards believes residents' safety, not wildlife preservation, should come first.

"This has nothing to do with hunting," he said. "This is protecting people."