Wildlife board approves permits for 2009-2010 cougar hunt

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Members of the Utah Wildlife Board approved rules for the state's upcoming season at their Aug. 20 meeting in Salt Lake City.

About 300 cougars

About 300 cougars will probably be taken in Utah during the state's 2009–2010 hunting season.

That number would be similar to the past four seasons in Utah. Hunters took an average of 306 cougars during each of those seasons.

"About 15 years ago, the Utah Wildlife Board increased the number of cougar hunting permits a bunch," says Kevin Bunnell, mammals program coordinator for the DWR.

Bunnell says helping mule deer herds recover after hard winters in the early 1990s was the biggest reason for the increase. "Cougars were one of several factors that kept mule deer herds from rebounding after those winters," Bunnell says.

Biologists had two things in mind when they proposed the permit increase: they wanted to help the mule deer herds recover while making sure Utah's cougar population stayed protected. "Our main goal was to find a balance between the two species," Bunnell says.

He says it appears the effort over the past 15 years worked. Permits were increased for several years. Then, for the past four years, permit numbers have been reduced.

"Based on the number of cougars that hunters took in 2009, and the number of cougars houndsmen chased up trees last year, it appears Utah's cougar population has started to stabilize," Bunnell says.

"Now we're working to find the proper balance between cougars and their prey. We think the permit numbers the board approved for 2010 are another step in that direction."

The number of hunting permits the board approved for Utah's limited entry units, and the total number of cougars to be taken on the state's harvest objective units, are down slightly from 2009.

2009–2010 Cougar Guidebook

More information about Utah's 2009–2010 cougar hunting season will be available in the 2009–2010 Utah Cougar Guidebook. The guidebook should be available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks during the week of Sept. 14.

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