GF&P considers lion limit increase

By Ryan Woodard, Journal staff | Saturday, May 12, 2007

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South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department staff members recommended a third mountain lion hunting season — and a larger harvest limit — to GF&P Commissioners at a meeting Friday in Custer State Park.

The recommended 2007 season would include a limit of 35 total lions or 15 females —meaning the season would end after either 15 females or 35 total lions were killed, assistant wildlife director George Vandel said.

Last year’s season limited the kill to 25 total lions or eight female lions.

Another proposed change from last year’s season includes the consolidation of the Black Hills Unit and the Prairie Unit into one statewide unit with licenses — priced at $15 — available to any South Dakota resident, Vandel said.

Last year, landowners in the Prairie Unit were allowed to shoot lions on their own property, and any licensed hunter in the Black Hills Unit was

also allowed to hunt the big cats. The recommended change would open up the season to hunters statewide.

The proposed season would go from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, which is identical to the dates of last year’s season.

The GF&P Commission will hold a public hearing June 7 in Pierre and is accepting public comment until that time. Vandel said the commission likely would make a decision on the season a day or two after that meeting.

He said the staff recommended the increased harvest limit because the lion population supports it.

The proposed limits are still within a safe range of the total estimated population of 180 to 200 lions in the Black Hills, Vandel said.

“It results in an overall hunting harvest of 20 percent. Again, that’s based on a conservative population estimate,” he said. “Data estimates (indicate) that a harvest of between 20 and 30 percent is going to be easily handled by a mountain lion population.”

Vandel said the GF&P Department believes that the lion population has increased and that the lions’ home ranges have gotten smaller.

The change allowing any resident to own a license is being proposed because a number of landowners and hunters requested it, Vandel said.

“They made some good points to us,” Vandel said. “It came as a result of meetings we had with both sportsmen and landowners, and we felt it was a legitimate request.”

Vandel said he and other GF&P staff members were informed that some deer hunters had seen mountain lions but couldn’t shoot them because they weren’t landowners.

Any hunter who shoots a lion under the newly proposed season would have to show it to any GF&P official within 24 hours of the kill, instead of being limited to checking in at the Regional Office in Rapid City.

Vandel said the change in the harvest limits and units comprised most of the changes from the 2006 season.

Contact information

Public comments on the proposed GF&P mountain lion hunting season can be emailed to Wildinfo@state.sd.us or mailed to GF&P Offices at South Dakota Game Fish & Parks, 523 East Capitol Avenue Pierre, SD 57501.

Full name and home address must be included for the comment to be included in the public record. The public is also welcome to attend the Public Hearing in Pierre on June 7.

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