Nebraska LB928 allows hunting of cougars (pumas, mountain lions) in Nebraska at the future discretion of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
LB928 was signed by the Governor on 17 April 2012
Nebraska LB928 was introduced by Senator Louden (District 49), and provided for hunting permits for cougars (also known as mountain lions or pumas) in Nebraska. This bill was (strictly speaking) somewhat off-topic for this web site, but many of us who care about exotic cats in captivity also care about their preservation in the wild. And since few (if any) other websites were likely to be shedding any light on this bill, and it was a Nebraska mountain lion issue, I followed this here as it moved through the legislative process.
It's useful to remember the following facts about cougars (mountain lions):
- Resident female mountain lions are required for there to be a resident population.
- Female cougars do not breed until they have established their own “home” territory. This usually happens when they're anywhere from 18 to 43 months old.
- Average cougar mortality varies. But (to get some idea of its magnitude) the average motality of an unhunted population in southern Utah was about 28% in one study.
- In a New Mexico study of 258 cougar litters, the frequency of occurrence of the most common litter sizes were as follows:
Percentage of Litters Litter Size 28.9% 2 43.4% 3 18.2% 4 8.6% other litter sizes - Kittens under 6 months old only have a 66% chance of surviving to adulthood, even under their mother's care.
- Cougar kittens stay with their mother for 18-24 months, preventing her from breeding during that time.
And following is a brief history of the highlights in cougar confirmed sightings in Nebraska:
| 1991 | first confirmed cougar in Nebraska since about 1900 |
| 2005 | repeated confirmed cougar sightings in the Pine Ridge area |
| 2006 | first resident female cougar confirmed in Nebraska (1) |
| 2007 | first cougar kittens confirmed in Nebraska (a trail camera picture of a female and her kittens, and then a kitten killed on a road) |
| 2010 | the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission does a scat study in Pine Ridge area and identifies 13 individual cougars (including 5 females, 2 of which were breeding age) |
So it took 15 years from the first cougar sighting in the state until the first confirmed female cougar was here. The first cougar kittens were born in Nebraska only 5 years ago, and then just 2 years ago Game and Parks could still only positively confirm that there were 5 female cougars in the state (with only two of those being of breeding age).
This for an animal whose current confirmed population is somehwere only around 13-28 (Game and Parks' numbers). And an animal where 73% of the litters are 3 kittens or fewer, there is a 66% kitten motality rate, the kittens stay with their mothers for a minimum of 1˝ years but sometimes as long as 2 years, and the females do not breed until they are at least 1˝ years old (and sometimes not until they're over 3˝ years old).
These numbers do not add up to support a reasonable argument that the Nebraska cougar population needs any further “management” by allowing hunters to kill them for sport--unless one's concept of “management” is to completely wipe them out from the state again.
A resident population of only twenty or so cougars is not a sustainable population by anybody's definition unless you base your conclusion solely on the premise that there will always be new animals coming into Nebraska from neighboring states to replace resident cats as we kill them off. But if that's the logic, then our resident population isn't truly being “managed” at all--any more than we can say that Bernie Madoff was “managing” his investors' money.
The public hearing on LB928 was held on Thursday, February 2, 2012 before the Natural Resources Committee. It was troubling to hear the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission say that perhaps hunting could be allowed in another year or two. The transcript of that hearing is posted below.
But on February 9, 2012 Nebraska LB928 was moved out of committee to the General File, was ammended with some stuff about deer depredation, was passed, and finally signed into law by the Governor.
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