"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.
there is no way we can ignore the protection of mountain
lions.
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.”
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