A legislative panel voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission's decision to make changes in South Dakota's hunting season for mountain lions.

The season will start two months later than last year in an attempt to reduce the number of young lions that are orphaned when their mothers are killed in the Black Hills. The new rules also will let landowners outside the Black Hills who buy licenses shoot cougars year-round on land they own or lease.

Until now, the season coincided with the Black Hills deer and elk seasons in the fall, but this winter it will run Jan. 1-March 31.

The new season will have the same kill quota as last year, meaning it will end early if 35 total lions or 15 females are killed.

Members of the Legislature's Rules Review Committee, which oversees rules passed by state agencies, asked mostly about why the Game, Fish and Parks Department manages lions in the Black Hills differently than it handles the ones occasionally found outside the Black Hills.

Rep. Bill Thompson, D-Sioux Falls, said wildlife managers seem to have a double standard because they manage lions to preserve a sustainable population in the Black Hills, but not on the prairie.

Tony Leif, director of the state Wildlife Division, said the Black Hills has adequate habitat to support a population of mountain lions. "We really don't have that outside the Black Hills."

The Black Hills season is set to meet population goals in the area while still providing recreation for hunters, Leif said.

"The Department of Game, Fish and Parks has no intention to manage for a population of mountain lions outside of the Black Hills region," Lief told the lawmakers.

Earlier this year, the Legislature rejected a bill to declare mountain lions outside the Black Hills as predators and varmints, but Leif said wildlife managers took note of testimony from landowners who want to protect themselves and their property from wandering cats.

Landowners already may shoot a mountain lion at any time, even without a license, if the lion presents a realistic threat to people or livestock, Leif said.

The new rules would let licensed landowners outside the Black Hills kill mountain lions on their land before the animals become a threat, Leif said.

"They will have that ability to go and patrol all their property and not have an immediate threat to themselves or their property, their personal property or their livestock, to take action," he said.

Thompson said year-round hunting by landowners outside the Black Hills seems unnecessary because they can already kill cats that are a threat, but he said the Game, Fish and Parks Commission has the legal authority to give landowners licenses good all year.

Leif said the Black Hills season was moved to start in January because many young lions are accompanying their mothers during the fall months. The later season is intended to reduce the number of young lions orphaned when their mothers are shot, he said.

"Nobody wants to see young mountain lions orphaned," Leif said.

To protect kittens, the rules include a ban on shooting any lion with a spotted coat. Hunters also cannot shoot any mountain lion accompanying another, a restriction which is also designed to prevent the orphaning of young kittens.

Wildlife officials estimate 220-280 mountain lions live in the Black Hills. Some lions leave the area to search for new habitat and wind up on the prairie, but most traveling mountain lions head west to Wyoming or Montana, Leif said.