Washington Cougar Article

[Cougeyes]

Here's a link to a good article on cougars and cougar management in Washington and past research conducted within Washington, (i.e. Okanogan, Kettle Falls area, etc..).  I think anyone interested in cougars and management in this state should read it.

http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060040

[saylean]

An interesting article. Cant say I agree with all points, but there are a few.

One thing they should look into...is not the amount of hunters who have tags...but the amount of hunters who actually harvest a cougar. For example:

"There were a total of 56,651 cougar transport tags acquired for the 2003 cougar season. Cougar hunter success was 0.26 percent statewide."

Total kill...222 statewide. Those are not very good odds.

This was the 2003 harvest report stats.

[WAcoyotehunter]

Also- incidental kills are likely to be smaller, younger cats or females. Hound hunters are likely to let those cats go in search of a big tom.  It makes for more cats as a whole, but a somewhat out of proportion number of adolecensents, that might need an occasional 'tuning' from the adults. 

[Cougeyes]

I agree with the incidental kills being younger cats or females, but not so sure about the hound hunting.  I agree that hound hunters want a big tom, that is obvious, but then why is it that every year the female quota is filled way before the male quota is met.  The season ends and there are usually a bunch of toms that could have been harvested.  Not up to par on it, but might just be because the boot hunting incorporates into that female component quota.  Who knows, I bet we see some changes this next season with cougar hunting.

[Machias]

In Stevens/Pend Oreille the female quota was 15.  When the hound season opened 1 Dec there were only 8 females still available for harvest.  Also during the season I believe it was 1 or 2 females were illegally harvested by boot hunters.  So hound hunters ended up taking 6 or 7 females.  I think as the female numbers near the 15 animal mark, the hound hunters get nervous that they will not have a chance to fill their tag so they go ahead and harvest whatever they tree. 

[HoundGirl]

I think letting hound hunter's hunt and not making the tags part of the big game package would be the smartest thing to do. Hound hunter's really do only want large toms. They are not out to kill anything they tree they want something to return to next year to hunt. As for the permits that are issued now, I did draw a west side permit this year. In most units there are 2 permits issued but only one tag given out. Which makes you want to kill the first cat you tree so the other permity doesn't get one first. If they are going to keep the special hunts they need to rethink the way they do them. If you weren't worried about killing one first you could wait for that big tom.

[Houndhunter]

thanks for the post, it was an interesting article

to me the whole female quota being meet to fast hasnt been much of an problem, cant say that for all areas but in stevens/pend it was fine. we hunted all the way till jan first and there was 2 females left and 5 overall.

alot of my family is over in idaho right now running lions, wish i was with them

[Machias]

Pretty sure there was still 18 or 19 toms left when the female quota was met in Stevens/Pend.

[gramps]

I would like to read the article, but the print is so small I can't read it...it is just a blur.  Can anyone help me with the font size?   I assume it is my computer and can't remember how to change it.   Thanks

[Cougeyes]

I think you have to go into the start menu, control panel, and display and find somewhere in there that has font size.  Or possibly try to copy and paste into word and change the size in there, but i think that will just screw up the formatting. 

[smdave]

I would like to read the article, but the print is so small I can't read it...it is just a blur.  Can anyone help me with the font size?   I assume it is my computer and can't remember how to change it.   Thanks

You could always download the article to your computer, click on the link on the right hand side you have the download options I clicked on .PDF small and was able to print it out fine.

Dave

[gramps]

Thanks..I got it to download.  I could just barely see the word 'download', but the line next to it was maybe a 1/64 inch high....strange.