3 Mountain Lions Killed on Wild Horse Island

Point out and tribal wildlife officials lethally taken out a few grownup mountain lions from Wild Horse Island on Flathead Lake this wintertime, euthanizing the massive cats for the reason that they had grown habituated to men and women and had been preying on an isolated population of bighorn sheep utilised for herd augmentations across the West.

Bears and lions have been sporadically documented on the island more than time, and can entry the land by swimming or by crossing the sprawling lake on the rare celebration that it freezes. Even so, the density and habituated habits of these a few lions on the 2,163-acre island warranted fast elimination in advance of they introduced a community safety hazard, according to wildlife administrators with the two the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT).

In accordance to FWP Location 1 Supervisor Jim Williams, who is a entire world-renowned mountain lion specialist, an grownup male lion can have a household array near to 150 square miles, and even juveniles take a look at broad-ranging territories that dwarf Wild Horse Island, which by distinction is approximately 3 sq. miles in dimensions.

“To have a few adults concentrated on three square miles of land is most likely one particular of the highest temporary densities of mountain lions on earth Earth,” Williams stated Friday.

The management action was prompted by studies from residence house owners earlier this wintertime that the big carnivores have been caching prey beneath the decks of properties and cabins, officers reported. The lions — two males and one feminine — were eliminated with the aid of hounds on three individual journeys to the island, officers claimed, introducing that they returned to the island on two stick to-up outings, but did not detect any proof of mountain lions.

In accordance to FWP Area 1 Spokesman Dillon Tabish, the uptick in visitation to Wild Horse Island in the summer months months gave the administration motion an further degree of urgency.

“We experienced reports from landowners on the island that these lions were coming up on their decks and stashing carcasses,” Tabish claimed. “These specific lions had grown exceptionally habituated to people, and offered a genuine community safety difficulty.”

FWP and CSKT officials have been also worried about the impact the lions could have to one of the nation’s most critical conservation herds of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which have persisted sickness-no cost on the island for just about a century. Despite the fact that Wild Horse Island supplies higher-top quality habitat that supports a sheep population that has manufactured some of the largest rams in the earth, the animals have no escape route from mountain lions in an island environment, Tabish said.

In the past half-century, much more than 560 sheep have been translocated from Wild Horse Island to create new herds and augment current populations across the U.S. For example, previous 12 months FWP moved 26 bighorn sheep from the island to the Tendoy Mountains in southwest Montana to assistance reestablish a herd in that space. Because then, even so, the population numbers have declined.

“Right now we estimate a sheep populace of about 35, which is down from our management goal of 100 or 120 sheep,” Tabish said.

“Alongside prioritizing general public basic safety, we felt it was vital to secure a person of the few disorder-free bighorn sheep herds due to the fact of the position it performs in the higher conservation of the species across North America,” included Neil Anderson, FWP regional wildlife manager. “Due to the deficiency of escape terrain for bighorn sheep and the variety of lions on the island, the bighorn populace has been reduced to a variety we haven’t found in a long time.”

Tabish emphasised that northwest Montana is dwelling to a healthy and sturdy populace of mountain lions, and that the final decision to lethally take away them aligned with FWP’s very long-standing coverage in opposition to relocating a habituated mountain lion. Past study displays lion relocations are mainly unsuccessful in avoiding the lion from returning, and can create new territorial conflicts with other lions, he said.

The lion hides and skulls from Wild Horse Island had been transferred to the CSKT for academic use.

“Mountain lion and other cats, like the bobcat, hold important cultural great importance to Tribal users, and are not hunted within the Flathead Indian Reservation,” explained Kari Eneas, CSKT wildlife supervisor. “Our mountain lion populations are healthful and, in this distinctive condition, we regarded the habituated conduct and density of animals of all wildlife species on the island in our cooperative determination with FWP.”