Proposed WA Cougar-Hunting Regulations Are Good Science; Support Them

This OpEd by Dr. Mark Elbroch, Panthera Puma Program Director, was originally published in the Seattle Times on June 20, 2024.

South of Sequim on May 8, 2021, we caught a 2-year-old female cougar as part of the Olympic Cougar Project and fitted her with a GPS collar. We used her data to determine where cougars are most likely to cross highways and to contribute to Washington’s Statewide Habitat Connectivity Strategy.

Yoko, as we called her, lived on the outskirts of town, navigating rural properties and recreation areas. She gave birth to two litters, the first of them just 200 yards from a popular parking spot for hikers and mountain bikers on Burnt Hill.

In documenting 100 of her kills, we learned that while weaving among the people, pets and livestock of southern Sequim, Yoko mostly fed on deer, along with coyote, raccoon, snowshoe hare and one domestic cat that ventured onto public land.

It’s unclear what changed on April 12, 2024. Perhaps the play of moonlight on white fur caught her attention. That night, Yoko killed an alpaca unprotected by adequate fencing or a night enclosure — an animal she had passed many times in previous years. The angry livestock owner demanded retribution, and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife removed not just Yoko, but her two 1-year old kittens as well when they were caught in a trap at the scene.

Right now, WDFW hunting regulations do not account for their deaths, because only adult cougars legally killed by hunters count toward regional hunting quotas. Yoko didn’t count because she was killed by WDFW, and her kittens didn’t count either, because they were young.

This month, the Fish and Wildlife Commission is attempting to close these loopholes, and others, through much-needed changes to Washington’s cougar hunting regulations. Washingtonians who wish to preserve wildlife and wild places, and see greater science-based management and conservation of our state’s natural resources, should support these proposed rules.

Time is of the essence: Express support for proposed changes as the WDFW Commission discusses public comment during their June 21-22 meeting, and will vote July 19. (To comment, go to st.news/cougar)

A glaring hiccup in the current quota structure is that it fosters an environment prone to overharvesting cougars, which impacts their abundance and social organization. In fact, the Olympic Cougar Project has found that 50% of local cougar mortality remains unaccounted for in management decisions because these animals are killed by the state, illegally poached or die from vehicle strikes.

If the new rules are adopted, all independent cougars (18+ months old) and all cougars killed by humans, whether they be legal hunters or state wildlife officials, will contribute to Washington’s regional hunting quotas. The new rules would also utilize cougar density estimates determined by WDFW to set regional hunting limits, specifically capping local mortality at 13% of independent animals in each population. In regions that reach the 13% cap before the start of the cougar hunting season — say, due to conflict removal by state agents — the cap would increase to 20% of the population for that season to provide local hunting opportunity.

These changes would also make Washington home to the most scientific and progressive cougar harvest regulations nationwide, and a model for states like Texas, which after decades of resistance has finally made headlines in granting mountain lions, or cougars, their first-ever protections.  

The deaths of Yoko and her two kittens didn’t “count” toward Washington’s hunting quota this year. But if the proposed rules succeed, WDFW might and should pause — so as not to jeopardize hunting opportunity — before killing the next Yoko and her kittens.