Scott Swanson
Are cougars more plentiful now than, say, 10 years ago?
Depends on whom you talk to.
Oregon state wildlife biologists say they don’t believe there are more of the mountain lions in the Cascades and the Willamette Valley west of the mountains, and if counts of reported killings of cougars can be relied upon, they seem to support that analysis to a certain extent, although the cats’ presence may be becoming more evident.
In the last month, a cougar has been hit by a school vehicle on Fern Ridge, two have been killed on Highway 228 in the Crawfordsville area and others have been reported, though not necessarily officially.
Cougars have been blamed for multiple livestock killings in the area since last summer, including six American blackbelly sheep belonging to a family on 50th Avenue, five goats on a ranch on Crescent Hill Drive, and others.
Whether there is actually an increased number of cats in the state is up for argument, but the numbers of reported cats killed in Linn County have shot up by more than 100 percent in recent years, from an average of 13 betweeen 2006 and 2009, to 20 in 2010 and 23 in 2011. Probably even more telling, the number killed because they have been deemed a hazard to humans has doubled in the last year from eight in 2010 to 17 in 2011, and quadrupled from 2009 (four). But the numbers are small, so statistically those increases are not as significant as they would be with larger totals.
Nancy Taylor, a biologist at the Corvallis branch of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that although the numbers of cougars reported to have been killed in Linn County have not increased significantly in recent years, “there’s definitely been an increase in sightings.”
“The statistics don’t always show what the situation is on the ground,” she said. “I’ve been here since 2003. I might have gotten a call once a week about a cougar sighting. Now I’m on the phone three or four times a week.”
Brian Wolfer, another ODFW biologist, who works out of the Springfield office, said he hasn’t seen a “big change” in cougar populations on the eastern portion of the Willamette Valley, though he said numbers in the Coast Range seem to be up.
“Within the Cascades, we’ve got cougars throughout the available habitat,” he said. “I don’t think that’s changed. We had livestock damage five years ago and we’ve got livestock damage now.”
Ron Henthorne, a private predator-control trapper who specializes in coyotes and cougars, said he believes problems caused by the cats are increasing.
“There’s an awful lot of damage caused by them,” he said.
He blamed Measure 18, passed in 1994, for changes in the cats’ behavior. Measure 18 banned the use of hounds to hunt cougars.
“They’re losing their fear of people,” he said. “In the several generations since Measure 18 was passed, the cats are starting to lose their fear of people. They used to be chased by dogs.
“I think it would be better to run them with dogs, but that’s not an option with the way the rules are right now.”
New legislation passed in 2007 by the Oregon Legislature allows deputized hunters to use hounds in designated counties to reduce cougars. However, Henthorne said, the law isn’t very effective in most cases because it limits the use of hounds to the property on which livestock killing occurred. He said that the longer it takes him to get a trap set after a kill, chances of catching the guilty cougar are minimized.
“People need to check their animals.”
Rep. Sherrie Sprenger (R-Scio) has re-introduced legislation she introduced last year, which would establish a pilot cougar management plan modeled after a successful program implemented in Washington State.
House Bill 4119 received a public hearing last week in the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. It would allow counties that want to participate to implement a pilot project overseen by the ODFW) which allows the hunting of cougars with dogs.
The bill is the same concept as HB 2337, the bill she advocated for in the last session. The bill passed the House of Representatives in 2011 with overwhelming bipartisan support, yet failed to be heard in the Senate committee to which it was referred.
Sprenger said she continues to advocate for this issue as a result of the resounding concerns from her district about their increasing cougar conflicts, livestock and animal loss.
“There is no need for taxpayers to be paying for the ODFW to harvest cougars when we have citizens already willing to do so at no cost,” she said. “This is a responsible plan to give communities a tool to deal with growing conflicts.”
At last week’s public hearing, Kevin Strong, business manager for the Sweet Home School District, recounted the many cougar sightings around schools and school bus stops that have been getting more frequent.
Also among those testifying in support of the bill were the Association of Oregon Counties and the Oregon Hunters Association. House Bill 4119 passed 6-1 after the hearing. The bill next goes to the Ways and Means committee and then must receive a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate Chambers.
Both Henthorne and Wolfer said that decreasing populations of blacktailed deer, due to a variety of factors, have probably forced cougars down from the mountains.
“The blacktail deer population has been affected by hair loss and loss of habitat up high in the mountains because the Forest Service is not cutting any more,” Henthorne said. “So many things affect the cougar population.”
He said he believes cougars are more active at this time of the year because this is the peak season for mating, so males are out looking for females.
“They start moving an awful lot and a lot of damage occurs this time of year,” he said. “They’re getting out of their normal range, looking for mates.”