09/12/2008

By JEFF BARNARD  / Associated Press

Oregon lawmakers are keeping a close eye on a three-year state experiment with killing cougars, and will be hearing from a scientist who has found that taking out too many can break down the big cats' social structure, which may actually lead to more run-ins with people and livestock.

The featured witness at the Friday legislative hearing in Newport, Ore., will be Robert Wielgus, a professor of wildlife biology at Washington State University and head of the Large Carnivore Conservation Laboratory, who has done three studies on the effects of cougar hunting.

"Hunting these areas to reduce the number of cougars in our case didn't work," Wielgus told The Associated Press. "You simply had this influx of younger cougars coming in.

"Other researchers have suggested they have found these young males tend be involved in these human-cougar conflicts. We're looking at this now."

Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, said he has no plans to offer any legislation on what has become one of Oregon's hot-button issues, but he does want to keep close watch on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's experimental program of killing cougars to see if that reduces complaints.

"This is sort of a classic urban-rural divide question that people feel very very emotional about," Bates said. "We're going to have to find some common ground between these two groups somewhere."

However, Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, is interested in forcing the Oregon cougar plan to go under an independent peer review. He said he will be gauging the interest of his fellow lawmakers in a bill that would require that in the 2009 session.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted the cougar management plan in 1996 to restore the balance of cougars, humans, livestock and game animals that was in place in 1994. That's the year Oregon voters adopted a ban on hound hunting, widely considered the most effective means of killing cougars. Voters reiterated their support for the ban two years later.

The plan calls for holding Oregon's cougar population at or above the 1994 estimate of 3,000 animals. The current estimate is more than 5,000. It gives the department authority to kill cougars as long as livestock kills and complaints from people exceed 1994 levels, and in 66 wildlife management areas where deer, elk and bighorn sheep herds are struggling.

From the start, environmental groups have felt the plan is scientifically bankrupt, based on mass hysteria and false assumptions. A number of groups have challenged the plan in federal court, arguing it kills cougars indiscriminately, rather than targeting the ones causing problems.

Ron Anglin, head of the wildlife division for the Oregon Department Fish and Wildlife Division, said they are two years into the three-year plan, and it appears that controlling cougar numbers around Heppner have allowed elk calf survival to increase.

But they are unable to make any conclusions from the study area north of Ontario looking at livestock deaths, or the study area outside Medford looking at human safety.

The state of Washington has been following a parallel course of voters banning hound hunting, a chorus of complaints about cougars, and demands something be done.

Under legislation adopted four years ago, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife allowed hound hunters to take cougars in northeastern Washington, with the goal of reducing the overall population by 25 percent.

Wielgus' lab monitored the results, and in a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Wildlife Biology, concluded that, "increased hunting could actually result in increased cougar complaints because of the younger age structure of the cougar population and the higher proclivity of young animals to encounter humans and cause complaints.

"Sustainable hunting regulations and bag limits should not be based on numbers of cougar complaints — but should be based on estimated demographic trends obtained through census or radiotelemetry."

Donny Martorello, carnivore section manager for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said they cut back on the harvest level after it became clear the population was becoming less stable.

While they did see a slight reduction in the number of cougar complaints in areas hunted with the help of dogs, it was within the margin of error, so not statistically significant, Martorello said.

"It doesn't mean it didn't help, but you can't draw a cause and effect to that relationship," he said.