Liberty Belle
Well-known member
South Dakota just opened it's first mountain lion hunting season because we are being over run with them. So far three of them have been killed and the PETA type folks are going nuts.
Here is a story from today's Rapid City Journal:
State team finds lion cubs
By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer
An elk hunter from Highmore killed the third mountain lion of the state's most controversial hunting season Tuesday morning near Spearfish, a few hours before biologists rescued a litter of lion kittens that had been orphaned Sunday near Custer State Park when their mother was shot.
GF&P officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the third lion of the season was shot earlier in the day by a hunter using an elk call about seven miles southwest of Spearfish. The lion was a 121-pound male estimated to be 3 years old.
GF&P officials in Rapid City declined to release the name of the hunter. One official said hunters who killed lions last weekend and were identified in Journal stories had received critical telephone calls.
One of those hunters, Cade Cradduck of Volga, helped two GF&P biologists and a South Dakota State University lion researcher locate the litter of lions that he unknowingly orphaned Sunday when he shot their mother as the cat moved toward him aggressively.
George Vandel, assistant Wildlife Division director for GF&P in Pierre, said Cradduck led the team to the exact spot where he shot the lion. The GF&P crew had failed to find the kittens during a search of the general area the day before.
With Cradduck's help, GF&P biologists John Kanta and Lowell Schmitz and lion researcher Dan Thompson found the kittens in a den about 50 yards from the spot where they found Cradduck's shell casing.
"They found three 2½-month old kittens, about 10 pounds each, one male and two females," Vandel said. "We had them examined by a local veterinarian. They were a little dehydrated but otherwise healthy."
Vandel said the lions were being cared for in relative isolation with little human contact until officials decide what to do with them. He admitted that the decision to search for the kittens — a departure from normal GF&P policy — was more about public perception than wildlife management.
"We agonized over this. We tried to weigh the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do and the biological side of it, which was minimal," Vandel said. "And we decided this was the proper thing to do."
Critics of the mountain lion season said they were happy the kittens were found but still upset that a lactating lion was killed while caring for her kittens.
"I think it's better than having them die a slow, miserable death from starvation, but I hate that they're going to have to live a life in captivity," Lynn Sadler, president of the California-based Mountain Lion Foundation, said. "It's a bittersweet victory, that's for sure."
Sadler said the incident shows that a GF&P regulation aimed at protecting lions with kittens was ineffective. The regulation prohibits hunters from shooting spotted kittens or lions accompanying spotted kittens.
"Here, we had a mother trying to defend her kittens, which were just 50 yards away, and she gets killed," Sadler said. "This just proves that the law has no force."
Cradduck reported that he was walking through the woods hunting elk when the lion appeared about 20 feet away, growled and came at him. He said he fired immediately and killed the cat when it was about 15 feet away.
Vandel said that in that situation, Cradduck had the right to defend himself whether there was a lion season or not.
"I put myself in that situation, and I would have shot that animal," Vandel said.
Dr. Sharon Seneczko of Custer, founder of the Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation, said the killing of the lactating female was the fault of the lion season, not the lion hunter.
"He didn't want to do that. What hunter does?" Seneczko said. "And I really hope the public doesn't really get angry with these hunters. It's not their fault. It's the design of the season. Nobody should badger the hunters."
The two organizations headed by Seneczko and Sadler unsuccessfully challenged the season in court. And the Mountain Lion Foundation still has a petition pending before the state GF&P Commission, which set the season, to rescind that rule.
The commission is scheduled to deal with that issue during its meeting Thursday and Friday in Yankton.
Gov. Mike Rounds said late Tuesday afternoon that he called GF&P officials Monday to discuss whether to search for the kittens.
"They thought it might be possible to find them," Rounds said. "They decided that if we could somehow save them, we should. I agreed with that analysis. I think it makes everybody happy."
Vandel said GF&P was not allowing reporters, the public or even many GF&P staffers to see the kittens. He said seclusion was best for the kittens.
Sadler said it also avoided publicity that would hurt support for the lion season.
"They don't want you to take a picture of those lions because, at that age, they are cuter than a bug's ear, and they don't want you to see what that hunter orphaned," she said. "And they can try to hide it, but I promise you we're going to keep telling the story."
Rounds said it's a complicated story that includes intense emotions but also the real need to trim the Black Hills mountain lion population. He said the death of the lactating female was an unfortunate effect of a season that he nevertheless supports.
The season will run through Dec. 15 unless hunters kill 25 lions overall or five breeding-age females before that date. In the first four days, hunters killed two breeding-age females and an adult male.
Rounds said he was comfortable that the sub-quota for adult females imposed by the GF&P Commission would protect the breeding population.
"I'm going to stick with them on this," Round said of the commission and its season. "I personally have a soft spot for the mountain lion. But at the same time, I know we have more here than we have space for, and we're going to have some encounters that may not end without an injury to a person. It's important to manage the population."
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or [email protected].
October 5, 2005
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/10/05/news/top/news01.txt
Here is a story from today's Rapid City Journal:
State team finds lion cubs
By Kevin Woster, Journal Staff Writer
An elk hunter from Highmore killed the third mountain lion of the state's most controversial hunting season Tuesday morning near Spearfish, a few hours before biologists rescued a litter of lion kittens that had been orphaned Sunday near Custer State Park when their mother was shot.
GF&P officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the third lion of the season was shot earlier in the day by a hunter using an elk call about seven miles southwest of Spearfish. The lion was a 121-pound male estimated to be 3 years old.
GF&P officials in Rapid City declined to release the name of the hunter. One official said hunters who killed lions last weekend and were identified in Journal stories had received critical telephone calls.
One of those hunters, Cade Cradduck of Volga, helped two GF&P biologists and a South Dakota State University lion researcher locate the litter of lions that he unknowingly orphaned Sunday when he shot their mother as the cat moved toward him aggressively.
George Vandel, assistant Wildlife Division director for GF&P in Pierre, said Cradduck led the team to the exact spot where he shot the lion. The GF&P crew had failed to find the kittens during a search of the general area the day before.
With Cradduck's help, GF&P biologists John Kanta and Lowell Schmitz and lion researcher Dan Thompson found the kittens in a den about 50 yards from the spot where they found Cradduck's shell casing.
"They found three 2½-month old kittens, about 10 pounds each, one male and two females," Vandel said. "We had them examined by a local veterinarian. They were a little dehydrated but otherwise healthy."
Vandel said the lions were being cared for in relative isolation with little human contact until officials decide what to do with them. He admitted that the decision to search for the kittens — a departure from normal GF&P policy — was more about public perception than wildlife management.
"We agonized over this. We tried to weigh the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do and the biological side of it, which was minimal," Vandel said. "And we decided this was the proper thing to do."
Critics of the mountain lion season said they were happy the kittens were found but still upset that a lactating lion was killed while caring for her kittens.
"I think it's better than having them die a slow, miserable death from starvation, but I hate that they're going to have to live a life in captivity," Lynn Sadler, president of the California-based Mountain Lion Foundation, said. "It's a bittersweet victory, that's for sure."
Sadler said the incident shows that a GF&P regulation aimed at protecting lions with kittens was ineffective. The regulation prohibits hunters from shooting spotted kittens or lions accompanying spotted kittens.
"Here, we had a mother trying to defend her kittens, which were just 50 yards away, and she gets killed," Sadler said. "This just proves that the law has no force."
Cradduck reported that he was walking through the woods hunting elk when the lion appeared about 20 feet away, growled and came at him. He said he fired immediately and killed the cat when it was about 15 feet away.
Vandel said that in that situation, Cradduck had the right to defend himself whether there was a lion season or not.
"I put myself in that situation, and I would have shot that animal," Vandel said.
Dr. Sharon Seneczko of Custer, founder of the Black Hills Mountain Lion Foundation, said the killing of the lactating female was the fault of the lion season, not the lion hunter.
"He didn't want to do that. What hunter does?" Seneczko said. "And I really hope the public doesn't really get angry with these hunters. It's not their fault. It's the design of the season. Nobody should badger the hunters."
The two organizations headed by Seneczko and Sadler unsuccessfully challenged the season in court. And the Mountain Lion Foundation still has a petition pending before the state GF&P Commission, which set the season, to rescind that rule.
The commission is scheduled to deal with that issue during its meeting Thursday and Friday in Yankton.
Gov. Mike Rounds said late Tuesday afternoon that he called GF&P officials Monday to discuss whether to search for the kittens.
"They thought it might be possible to find them," Rounds said. "They decided that if we could somehow save them, we should. I agreed with that analysis. I think it makes everybody happy."
Vandel said GF&P was not allowing reporters, the public or even many GF&P staffers to see the kittens. He said seclusion was best for the kittens.
Sadler said it also avoided publicity that would hurt support for the lion season.
"They don't want you to take a picture of those lions because, at that age, they are cuter than a bug's ear, and they don't want you to see what that hunter orphaned," she said. "And they can try to hide it, but I promise you we're going to keep telling the story."
Rounds said it's a complicated story that includes intense emotions but also the real need to trim the Black Hills mountain lion population. He said the death of the lactating female was an unfortunate effect of a season that he nevertheless supports.
The season will run through Dec. 15 unless hunters kill 25 lions overall or five breeding-age females before that date. In the first four days, hunters killed two breeding-age females and an adult male.
Rounds said he was comfortable that the sub-quota for adult females imposed by the GF&P Commission would protect the breeding population.
"I'm going to stick with them on this," Round said of the commission and its season. "I personally have a soft spot for the mountain lion. But at the same time, I know we have more here than we have space for, and we're going to have some encounters that may not end without an injury to a person. It's important to manage the population."
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or [email protected].
October 5, 2005
http://rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2005/10/05/news/top/news01.txt