IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Kenyon, M.W. | |
| Events in California's Mountain Lion Management, 2011-2014 | |
| 2014 Conference Proceeding | |
Mountain lions are designated as a "specially protected mammal" for which hunting is prohibited and no funds are allocated for monitoring, research or depredation and public safety response. As a result, California's mountain lion management has been guided by state law that is limited to responding to human-mountain lion conflicts, and conflicts associated with sensitive bighorn sheep populations. Although responding to mountain lion conflicts represents an unfunded mandate, the public expects a well-coordinated response to such calls for service where individuals perceive a threat to public safety. However, due to recent reductions in force, high personnel turnover, and reductions in resources available to responding personell, this expectation has not been consistently met throughout the state. To ameliorate this situation, CDFW began revising the state's mountain lion policy. This was prompted by a series of unfortunate circumstances including an incident that resulted in the death of 2 juvenile mountain lions in the city of Half Moon Bay. This incident, coupled with a history of similar situations, resulted in legislative changes requiring CDFW to consider utilizing the expertise of non-agency personnel (local veterinarians, university researchers, wildlife rehabilitators, and NGO's) and recommended the use of non-lethal measures as an initial step to resolving human-mountain lion conflicts. These legislative requirements were incorporated into the new policy, which has been in effect since January, 2013, and we are developing coordinated "regional response teams" to assist our efforts when necessary. CDFW has recently allocated funding to begin developing a statewide conservation management program. This program will be highly collaborative and involve diverse stakeholders to help define conservation, management and research priorities throughout the state. This effort will also evaluate using habitat suitability models and resource selection functions coupled with population genetics to develop regionalized population monitoring priorities for assessing the state's mountain lion population. |
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