Living with Lions in Washington State | S1E03 | On the Hunt with Janis Putelis

[253shotgunner]

Yeah I guess I hunt in coug country:

[WSU]

Cool video.  Seeing how close that cat let them get really makes you wonder how many just let you walk on by.

[WAcoyotehunter]

They are pretty tolerant of people when they are not being pursued much.  I'm curious how the data would compare in a state with an active hound hunting community

[jrebel]

I've had a game warden tell me Washington has an estimated 2500 cat statewide.  Do you think that is accurate or grossly underestimated?  I have to believe it is 3-4 times that at a minimum. 

[ShaneTyTrey]

I think that might be a bit understated but close.  They say we have about 30,000 black bears and you see way more than 10 bears for every cat you see.  I know that isn’t an accurate or linear comparison but an estimate.

[Wanttohuntmore]

There has to be much more than 2500.  I also think their wolf counts are grossly underestimated.

[Special T]

They are pretty tolerant of people when they are not being pursued much.  I'm curious how the data would compare in a state with an active hound hunting community

I grew up in hound hunting territory in Skagit county. Lots of dog boxes. We NEVER saw cats. They stayed well away from all things human even in the woods. We see them all the time now, and every area has sightings where they seem the least bit concerned. 1 not as many cats get killed in our area now and we have higher numbers. 2 they have not been conditioned that people and dogs are bad.

I think this study is good, but only necessary because we have to scientifically prove something that people have known for a long time.  My hope is that this helps us deal with cats and that a pursuit season only would make people safer.

I wish more tribal guys had the inclination to hound hunt.  The abundance of cats and bears would make for some great dogging, and would help everyone beyond compare.

[KFhunter]

Idaho isn't lacking in lions, even with the wolves, hounds and everyone shooting every predator they come across,  I still come across more lions in Idaho.   More game, more lions..

Up in the NE corner I'm noticing its taking more miles to cut a lion track after first few snows, less deer, less lions. 

There's still a ton of lions, but the pop of lions seems to get denser the closer you get to people, farms and deer.  Get way back, and it's getting hard to find one!

[rainshadow1]

I don't remember the exact numbers (I lost my book review page when I upgraded my website, and I think I lost the backup of it too when a hdd crashed, but...) the founder of the Olympic Game Farm was a bounty cat hunter back in the day, and he took amazing numbers of cats out of a couple specific areas every year. Year after year. They always replenished. Same areas, next year, same numbers. Granted, that was in the 40's/50's, but the idea still communicates, way more cats than anyone realizes. 

[7t9cobra]

I've had a game warden tell me Washington has an estimated 2500 cat statewide.  Do you think that is accurate or grossly underestimated?  I have to believe it is 3-4 times that at a minimum.

WDFW claims there are approx. 3,000 cougars in WA state. They claimed this at a cougar conflict meeting a couple years back. I found out they do not count tribal land, federal land and any cat under 2 years old. If you do the math on that, it puts the number closer to 10,000 IMO. But they don't want you to know that.

[nwwanderer]

Most recent printed WDFW info says 2,000.  Lion foundation says 1,500 and declining.  People that have experience say no way to accurately give a number.  With declining deer and elk, increasing wolves and expanding people providing new prey, I am sure the number is on the move up, down and side ways.  Thanks for all the pics, please keep them coming!!!

[Rainier10]

Great video and information

[X-Force]

Pretty awesome video

[nwhunter]

Good video... Really makes sense to have hound hunting outlawed and then pay guys with hounds to kill 50-60 lions a year because of depredation . Washington needs a governor that will say this doesn't pencil out and isn't working so we are going to change things.

[SWHUNTER]

Healthy cat?