Colorado wildlife overseers have rejected a push by mountain-lion hunters to allow the use of electronic predator-call devices that mimic elk, deer and rabbits in distress.
The 14-member Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to maintain the state’s prohibition on use of electronic calls in hunting big game species.
State staffers found that female cougars with cubs could be more vulnerable to the devices. Staffers also weighed whether hunters who use electronic devices could fail to distinguish between male and female mountain lions.
“We try to manage the population to protect the females because they are the breeding animals that ensure the population will be sustained,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Theo Stein.
Conservationists lauded commissioners for protecting fair-chase principles.
Luring cougars with electronic calls “is unfair and unethical,” said Wendy Keefover, director of carnivore programs for WildEarth Guardians, who has campaigned for a decade on behalf of big cats.
Allowing use of the devices would be “like waging war on animals that do not have guns and all these electronic devices,” Keefover said. “They have to live by their wits while we have these devices that facilitate killing.”
In the early 20th century, cougars were hunted nearly to extinction. But in Colorado they rebounded. State biologists estimate there are 3,500 to 4,500 cougars statewide. The population is considered stable.
State wildlife managers recently raised the annual hunting limit to 618 from 592. Since 1980, the annual number of cougars killed legally by hunters in Colorado has increased to 374 from 80. State researchers currently are looking into the impact of hunting.
Since 2007, cougar hunters have been required to take online courses on how to distinguish between males and females. Since then, the percentage of cougars killed that were female has decreased to around 36 percent from 43 percent.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
618
The annual hunting limit for mountain lions in Colorado. It had been 592 but was raised recently by state wildlife managers. The mountain-lion hunting season begins Nov. 21 and runs through March.
