Colorado Initiative 91 (Which We're Voting For) Gives A New Lease On Life To Mountain Lions

 

                                      Mountain Lion at rest in wildlife preserve

                                    'Yes!' for Wild cats volunteers on the march

"It makes good sense to vote 'yes' on Initiative 91 to protect mountain lions and bobcats from needless suffering, done by trophy hunting and to stop trapping bobcats just to make fur coats. There is not one acceptable reason of justifiable excuse for killing any lion or bobcat that is in nature, in their home. Also not causing any problems for us or our animals. We need to stop killing them for trophies and killing them to make fur coats for China.  This kind of activity is not even close to deer hunting. We don't chase deer with dogs wearing tracking collars just so some headhunter paying an outfit $8, 000 can walk up and shoot an animal stuck in the trees." - Denver Post letter writer, 'Enough Already',  Aug. 8, p. 3C

Beginning roughly 4 weeks from today Colorado mail ballots will be sent out and we're already preparing our choices. The Presidential (top of Ballot) choice is obvious because it is binary.  There simply is no other option other than voting for Kamala Harris, to prevent the 34 -times convicted felon and traitor from getting back in power. Those who mistakenly believe they have other options like voting 3rd party, leaving the space blank or filling in "Mickey Mouse', are fooling themselves, living in La-La land.  They understand nothing of our 2-party electoral system and that any other 'choice' but Kamala actually enables a misbegotten 2nd Trump term.

Other issues will also appear on the ballots and first and foremost for us, apart from raising taxes for bond issues to support schools, is Initiative 91.  This is the initiative in our state to outlaw reckless hunting of mountain lions and bobcats as trophies.

For decades, licensed hunters in Colorado have killed hundreds of mountain lions every year as “trophies” – but with the laughable excuse to control the state’s population of the reticent beasts. But this November we will have the chance to terminate this perfidy as voters in our state will decide whether to ban the practice, along with the trapping of bobcats. That prospect has set off a deluge of competing claims about what will happen if big-cat hunting ceases.

Having already voted back in 2023 for the introduction of Grey Wolves, e.g.

• Yes, We Voted For Introducing Grey Wolves In Colorado...

there is no way we can ignore the protection of mountain lions. Those of us who support the ban argue that mountain lion populations are self-regulating and will stabilize at a level supported by their available habitat and food resources. Those opposed to Initiative 91, meanwhile, say a hunting ban would induce a rapid increase in the number of big cats, which in turn would pose a significant threat to deer and elk herds. To which I say ‘ Humbug!’

The truth is likely a mix of the two, according to studies and experts.

But beyond biology, the statewide ballot measure is asking Coloradans to consider deeper questions about the future of Colorado’s wildlife. To wit, do mountain lions, bobcats, Lynx, Bears, coyotes and wolves have a right to live their own lives in our glorious state without risk of having their heads mounted on some lunatic’s walls? That is what the ‘Save the Wild Cats' Movement is all about.

The number of mountain lions in Colorado is difficult to determine because of their elusive and solitary nature. Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists estimate between 3,800 and 4,400 adult lions live in the state and say the population has grown since the species was classified as a big game species in 1965.

State biologists do not have an estimate for how many bobcats live in Colorado, but they believe the population is healthy and may be increasing in some areas.

Neither mountain lions nor bobcats are listed as federally threatened or endangered species. An estimated 20,000 to 40,000 mountain lions live in the U.S., as do more than 1.4 million bobcats.

“Both informal and recently collected empirical data suggest Colorado’s lion population is strong and lions are abundant in appropriate habitat,” states a Colorado Parks and Wildlife pamphlet on the species.

In the 2022-2023 hunting season — the most recent for which CPW data is publicly available — 2,599 people bought mountain lion hunting licenses and hunters killed 502 lions, making for a 19% success rate.

Those with opposing views of the ballot initiative posit different futures should mountain lion hunting be banned. But the truth is likely a mix of the two, said Jerry Apker, a retired CPW wildlife biologist who worked as the statewide carnivore biologist for 17 years before his 2017 retirement.

Populations would likely spike in the first years after hunting ends before increased mortality rates temper that growth, Apker said. Eventually, mountain lion populations tend to reach a stasis and fluctuate based on what food and habitat is available. What we do know is that climate change is likely to make access to adequate food sources ever harder in the coming years.

Which is why these big cats and other critters need protection now from hunters who fancy wild animal trophy heads on their walls.

To that end, there are already encouraging signs. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission earlier this year ended the state’s spring mountain lion season, instead restricting legal hunting to a single season that runs from November through March. The commission also banned hunters from using electronic recordings of other lions or distressed prey to lure mountain lions to an area. (Which is absolutely not cricket.)

Meanwhile, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission in July voted in favor of stricter limits and shorter seasons for cougar hunting. It acted on a petition filed by a number of local and national conservation and animal rights groups.

And California voters in 1990 chose to ban mountain lion hunting in the state permanently.

It is heartening to see that the non-human residents of our state and planet are slowly getting respect though there is still a long way to go.

 See Also:

Opinion: After 40 years of living with wolves, this wildlife biologist concludes managing people is the more difficult task

Excerpt:

“Wolf management is people management. Period,” Boyd concludes. “My hope is for a more tolerant world, with wolves living out their lives as a valued wildlife species. We can live without wolves, but the world is a much richer place with wolves in it.”