Mountain Lion hunting season began in Wyoming on September 1st, although a few areas are unlimited and/or open year round (areas in gray in table are year round). Most hunters wait for snow in order to find tracks, then release their dogs on fresh tracks. Wyoming has a new law that hunters are not allowed to shoot a cougar that is traveling with other cougars. Supposedly this would prevent killing females with young. But there’s a rub to this rule.
Wyoming 2017 Harvest Data by Area.
First, some cougar biology is needed. Females can come into estrous year-round. If a female loses her cubs, or they disperse, she can and probably will mate. Cubs stay with their mom for around two years, but can disperse earlier than that. It is not unusual for a kitten to disperse at fourteen or eighteen months. Once a female kitten leaves her mother, she typically sets up a home range not far from mom. Females are considered reproductively active adults by two to three years old, while males, because they need to disperse farther and set up their own territory that includes other females, are labeled adults at three to four years of age, but both sexes are capable of breeding around twenty-four months.
Kitten grow fast. Although they weigh little more than a pound at birth, by 6 months they are more than 35 pounds, and by eighteen months a male kitten can weigh 150 pounds, outweighing mom who might be around 90 pounds. But these kittens have a lot to learn in their first year to year and a half.
In the first two months of life, mom finds a log jam, or brushy area and gives birth to very vulnerable kittens, usually 2-4 in a litter. During this stage, she leaves them in this makeshift ‘den’ while she goes off to hunt, coming back to nurse. By two months, the kittens are old enough to start traveling with mom, but cannot hunt yet. Mom will stash her kittens, go hunt, then retrieve them and bring them to eat on her kill. It is only by about 5-6 months old that the kittens travel full time with mom, learning the hunting skills they will need when independent.
Mom with 8 month old kitten
Back to the mountain lion hunting season and Wyoming’s new law. As you can see, Wyoming has no laws about not killing females, nor do they have male quotas and female quotas.
It is extremely difficult to tell the difference between males and females. Research found that 75% of mothers would not be recognized by hunters. So would a law saying hunters cannot kill cougars traveling together protect cubs and mothers? Absolutely not. During the first 6 months of a kitten’s life, he or she is not traveling with mom most of the time. And once kittens have dispersed, mom will be coming into estrous or already pregnant. So, at any time of the year, a female is either with kittens, pregnant, or in estrous.
Conventional wisdom says there is a ‘spring birth pulse’ in the rocky mountains. That might be the ‘usual’, but in the three years that I’ve been catching kittens with mothers on camera, all these kittens were born around September/October.
Single kitten around 6 mos. February 2017. Born around September 2016
That means that while hunting season is on now, a female cougar with kittens would be traveling alone, and so her kittens would die without her.
Two Cougar Kittens around 5 months old early February 2017. Born around October 2016
Research shows that roughly 38-56% of adult females killed by hunters each year are mothers with dependent cubs. All the lion hunters that I’ve met with who are pushing for ethical reforms are completely against killing females. They want a ZERO quota on females.
Cougar kitten 5-6 months old Jan 2016 Born around September 2015
Wyoming needs more reform and there is much more to say about this which I will leave for another post. For now, enjoy this video of a mom with her two eight month old cougar kittens caught in May. Mom is the vigilant one in the middle.
Filed under: Cougars, Felidae | Tagged: Cougar Kittens, Cougars, Female mountain lions, Mountain lion hunting, mountain lions, Wyoming lion hunt, Wyoming mountain lion hunt |
Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces 
Great info and very concerning. Hounding is not hunting – it lacks any skill or ethic of fair chase it is an ego thing.
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Hi. In the photo you identify as two cougar kittens born February 2017, you actually have three cougar kittens! 3rd one is behind tree with its chin looking up.
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Hi Julia, look at my video on The Wild Excellence facebook page and you will see as that third cat comes around she is actually the mom, a bit bigger. The last video on that blog are the same family. That gives you an idea of what a difference only 4 months make in weight. Cougar kitten grow incredibly fast and by 18 months a male cougar can weigh 150 pounds with a 90 pound mother. Thanks for visiting.
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