Officials ponder cause of sick mountain lions

By Ryan Woodard, Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, August 03, 2006

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For the second time in less than a month, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks has had to kill a malnourished, probably sick lion that was unreasonably close to humans.

GF&P officials say they are trying to figure out what could have lead to the animals' conditions.

"When you have a couple of lions that appear sick or malnourished, it gives you a reason to take a harder look at what's going on that may be causing this," GF&P regional supervisor Mike Kintigh said.

"Is it normal, given the population levels, or is there something else going on to create levels of health that are unusual?"

GF&P officials killed an unnaturally thin, possibly sick lion that had wandered into Hot Springs on Sunday. The situation is similar to an incident on Nemo Road on July 7, in which GF&P officials euthanized a thin lion that had wandered to a resident's back porch and appeared to be blind.

Kintigh said the sick Hot Springs lion might have suffered from worms or feline leukemia - both common house-cat diseases that could be passed onto preying lions.

"We know that some of our lions are predating on house cats," he said. "They may be getting worms or parasitic animals from pets. We're going to start taking a little bit harder look at that."

He said that the growing population of lions, which the GF&P recently estimated at 165-210 instead of the previous estimate of 145, could also lead to more sick and malnourished animals.

"A higher population itself can result in this," he said. "Look at any other species - too many deer can eat themselves out of house and home."

However, he said that the population of deer and other "normal" lion prey is still sufficient.

Some lions are going after the domesticated animals because of inhibited hunting abilities, Kintigh said.

GF&P officials killed a lion Wednesday in a rural area between Custer and Pringle, he said, because it had killed a resident's Labrador and partially buried it in the owner's yard last Saturday.

"It was in a rural development area. Certainly not in the city limits," he said. "There were plenty of things to prey on; I don't know why it chose a dog."

He said the animal had previously lost toes after being caught in coyote traps, which might have limited its ability to hunt.

Lions that have inhibited hunting abilities or are thin and starving can be the most dangerous to people, Kintigh said. Those are characteristics shared by the two lions killed this week and another lion killed in early July.

"We are very cognizant of lions that are unhealthy in any way around people. History has shown that quite often those sick lions result in encounters with people," he said. "I'm not going to tolerate that at all."

Kintigh said that since the mountain lion population still appears strong, finding two sick animals won't cause the GF&P to adjust the hunting season or take any other drastic actions.

"Maybe it's just an oddity that we've had a couple in a short time that were diseased," he said.

Tests are still being done to discover the cause of the Hot Springs lion's death.

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com