More cougars will be spared in the South Dakota Black Hills but in Wyoming not so much

This interested party lived in the Black Hills for nearly thirty years before seeing a cougar then saw three in the Two Bit drainage inside part of the Grizzly Gulch burn: two cubs in the Spring of 2006 and probably their mother the previous winter about four miles apart. The adult ran in the snow in front of my pickup long enough for me to reach for the camera in my glove box and realize there was no film in it. My friend, Herb watched six for an hour in his front yard near Devils Tower about ten years ago but he didn't have a camera on his flip phone.

South Dakota Game, Fish, and Plunder has been systematically exterminating the cougar population that had been discouraging wolves from migrating into the state and in 2015 mountain lions were nearly extirpated from the South Dakota side of the Black Hills.

The robust Black Hills mountain lion population has long been thought of as a conveyor belt of itinerant eastbound animals that will eventually culminate in Puma concolor reoccupying old haunts they were extirpated from long ago. The region’s reputation as a lion-dispersal factory is rooted in observation: Animals that have been fitted with tracking collars in the isolated bi-state mountain range have ended up treading into North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska — and even well beyond. [Wyofile]

Since then the large felid has rebounded enough that SDGF&P considered removing them once again but after a public outcry the Republican-glutted commission has junked their plan. 

But in the Bear Lodge District in the Wyoming Black Hills the big cat may not be so fortunate because Earth haters in that state are shopping for outfitters and guides for hunting deer, wapiti, cougars, and wild turkeys. Each ranger district has this option but it tends to happen most often where congressional delegations are Republicans and Crook County is a colony of whiny anti-government welfare ranchers.

Paula Von Weller of Spearfish testified that mountain lions play a critical role as predators in the Black Hills, helping to reduce disease by preying on diseased, weakened animals. “Lions provide essential ecosystem services by removing chronic wasting disease from deer and elk populations,” Weller said. [State commission scraps plan to reduce mountain lion numbers after public pushback]

CWD is surging in Midwest states like Iowa and Minnesota but Wyoming and Colorado are seeing spikes, too. According to Wyoming Game and Fish, the disease, which occurs mainly in male cervids like wapiti, moose and deer, is found in 34 of the state's 37 mule deer herds and in 15 of the state’s 36 elk herd units. In parts of Canada 85% of male mule deer and 35% of females are infected. 

Colorado Parks and Wildlife's mandatory testing revealed increases in CWD in three of the state's mule deer herds. A warming climate is blamed for part of increased transmission rates but researchers say the federal government's feeding of elk, especially in Wyoming, in close proximity is also a factor. Hay fed to those animals is likely contaminated with Roundup® and other pesticides. Scavengers like American crows can move the disease from gut pile to gut pile and can remain in soils for years.

In Michigan where cougars are considered rare white-tailed deer are being decimated by CWD and by epizootic hemorrhagic disease or EHD.