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I have found no credible, current numbers for Washington. Oregon is claiming 6000, Vancouver Island claims the highest density on the planet and we seem to be stuck on the 2000- number. Where are we for the start of 2018? Thanks
Quote from: Ridgeratt on December 25, 2017, 08:21:20 AMQuote from: KFhunter on December 24, 2017, 10:36:54 PMYOU CAN THANK WIELGUS FOR OUR RIDICULOUS COUGAR QUOTAS TOO!What ever do you mean?This biased farce of a "study" has led to our current cougar plan, and was under the direct supervision of a proven liar who should have been fired. Anything Weilgus has touched needs to be torched because it does not pass any scientific scrutiny. https://news.wsu.edu/2012/09/25/wsu-research-results-in-new-management-plan/QuoteWSU research results in new management planPULLMAN, Wash. – Overharvest of cougars can increase negative encounters between the predator and humans, livestock and game, according to a 13-year Washington State University research project. Based on this, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing a new cougar management plan. Starting in January, Washington will employ equilibrium management – hunters will remove no more than the surplus of animals that would be generated through natural reproduction. This means that each of the state’s game management units will have a quota allowing for harvest of no more than 14 percent of that area’s cougars. Once the limit is filled, cougar hunting will be suspended for the year in that unit. Hunters will be allowed to take their tags to other units that haven’t reached the limit. Teens mentally ‘not all there’ For years, cougar management operated on the presumption that every cougar shot meant one cougar less to prey on livestock, game and pets. But the 13-year study headed by Rob Wielgus, director of WSU’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, has overturned that presumption. After years of data collection, researchers made a surprising observation. Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same. The old paradigm of wildlife management would explain this by saying the remaining population increased reproduction to make up for hunting. But this was not the case. In fact, reproductive success actually decreased. Data showed that adult males, “toms,” are intolerant of adolescent males and will kill them to maintain their territory and breeding rights. Juvenile males can only survive by avoiding adult males. When hunting removes most adult males, the adolescent males survive and cause all sorts of trouble. While adult cougars tend to avoid humans and livestock, juveniles are less cautious: “They’re teenagers,” explained Wielgus. “They’re sexually mature, but mentally they’re not all there.” Migration, reproduction, mortality This is compounded by the fact that adolescent males have larger territories than mature toms, but don’t maintain exclusive territories as do adult males. Livestock and elk herds might have one mature tom in the area, but removing that tom could bring in three or four adolescents, multiplying troubles. Without adult male protection of females and their litters, infanticide becomes a problem, as the young toms kill kits to bring the mother into heat and improve their breeding chances. The females try to protect their litters by moving higher in elevation, away from dangerous adolescent males, but also away from plentiful whitetail deer and into terrain occupied by less abundant prey such as mule deer, bighorn sheep and woodland caribou. Thus marginal game populations suffer. Research methods included capturing cougars with hounds and attaching collars with global positioning system receivers and radio transmitters. The collars reported the cougars’ locations six times a day, allowing researchers to generate valuable data on cougar migration, reproduction, prey and mortality. Wielgus’ graduate students on this multiyear project included: Don Katnik, Ph.D.; Catherine Lambert, M.S.; Hugh Robinson, Ph.D.; Hillary Cooley, Ph.D.; Kevin White, M.S.; Ben Maletzke, Ph.D.; Dana Morrison, M.S.; Jon Keehner, Ph.D.; and Kaylie Peebles, M.S. The only merit this plan has is in states with hound hunting that target adult males and passes on subadults and females, that decreases the big dominant males that tend to kill sub adults. That is not the case in Washington, here, we do not kill or specifically target through selective harvest the big dominate males, here -most cats are killed by opportunity, which is mainly sub adults and females with a rare big male here and there. This whole study is not relevant to WA cougars. After years of data collection, researchers made a surprising observation. Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same.Exactly! This, combined with our very limited hunting methods in WASHINGTON makes these quota's retarded. Hunters in WA kill whatever cat shows itself, we have no means or methods of selective harvest here in this state. The whole study is a farce.
Quote from: KFhunter on December 24, 2017, 10:36:54 PMYOU CAN THANK WIELGUS FOR OUR RIDICULOUS COUGAR QUOTAS TOO!What ever do you mean?
YOU CAN THANK WIELGUS FOR OUR RIDICULOUS COUGAR QUOTAS TOO!
WSU research results in new management planPULLMAN, Wash. – Overharvest of cougars can increase negative encounters between the predator and humans, livestock and game, according to a 13-year Washington State University research project. Based on this, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is implementing a new cougar management plan. Starting in January, Washington will employ equilibrium management – hunters will remove no more than the surplus of animals that would be generated through natural reproduction. This means that each of the state’s game management units will have a quota allowing for harvest of no more than 14 percent of that area’s cougars. Once the limit is filled, cougar hunting will be suspended for the year in that unit. Hunters will be allowed to take their tags to other units that haven’t reached the limit. Teens mentally ‘not all there’ For years, cougar management operated on the presumption that every cougar shot meant one cougar less to prey on livestock, game and pets. But the 13-year study headed by Rob Wielgus, director of WSU’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, has overturned that presumption. After years of data collection, researchers made a surprising observation. Whether hunters killed 10 percent or 35 percent of cougars, the population remained the same. The old paradigm of wildlife management would explain this by saying the remaining population increased reproduction to make up for hunting. But this was not the case. In fact, reproductive success actually decreased. Data showed that adult males, “toms,” are intolerant of adolescent males and will kill them to maintain their territory and breeding rights. Juvenile males can only survive by avoiding adult males. When hunting removes most adult males, the adolescent males survive and cause all sorts of trouble. While adult cougars tend to avoid humans and livestock, juveniles are less cautious: “They’re teenagers,” explained Wielgus. “They’re sexually mature, but mentally they’re not all there.” Migration, reproduction, mortality This is compounded by the fact that adolescent males have larger territories than mature toms, but don’t maintain exclusive territories as do adult males. Livestock and elk herds might have one mature tom in the area, but removing that tom could bring in three or four adolescents, multiplying troubles. Without adult male protection of females and their litters, infanticide becomes a problem, as the young toms kill kits to bring the mother into heat and improve their breeding chances. The females try to protect their litters by moving higher in elevation, away from dangerous adolescent males, but also away from plentiful whitetail deer and into terrain occupied by less abundant prey such as mule deer, bighorn sheep and woodland caribou. Thus marginal game populations suffer. Research methods included capturing cougars with hounds and attaching collars with global positioning system receivers and radio transmitters. The collars reported the cougars’ locations six times a day, allowing researchers to generate valuable data on cougar migration, reproduction, prey and mortality. Wielgus’ graduate students on this multiyear project included: Don Katnik, Ph.D.; Catherine Lambert, M.S.; Hugh Robinson, Ph.D.; Hillary Cooley, Ph.D.; Kevin White, M.S.; Ben Maletzke, Ph.D.; Dana Morrison, M.S.; Jon Keehner, Ph.D.; and Kaylie Peebles, M.S.
When did WDFW come out against any additional harvest methods? I think if HSUS and PAWS were supportive we could get some hound pursuit back, the state (WDFW) is not the problem in that regard.
