Distinctly Montana Magazine

IMAGES COURTESY OF US FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE Cats "What we want to learn from the study is how the CMR cats utilize breaks habi- tat and if they are multiplying and dispersing from the CMR, or are they traveling to the CMR from other areas where populations are hunted," says Doug Powell, a FWS lion researcher and pilot whose work with Montana's lions included the Garnet Moun- tain study. "An interesting question to answer though, is if the cats disperse from CMR, do they stay in a river breaks habitat or is there an equal chance they will disperse from the river breaks to a mountain range?" From the study's preliminary data, it appears that lions in the CMR disperse to the Little Rockies Mountains. This is the reverse of what researchers once theorized, that lions in the Little Rockies disperse to the CMR. Powell grins when he says, "Just when you think you've got them figured out, you don't." Researcher and hounds handler Grover Hedrick examines the gums and teeth of M4, a male lion. The amount of gum recession will clue Hedrick about M4's age. A cat that disseminates from the CMR to, let's say the Little Rockies, would have to establish a home range. The home range of an adult male lion is about 95 to 650 square kilometers; a female's is 58 to 275. But in the CMR study, home ranges of collared females are smaller than those of females in hunted populations that inhabit mountain forests. This suggests that the CMR breaks support a higher density of lions. Powell says a variety of factors influence home range dimensions, such as habitat, lion population density, the availability of prey, and security from hunters and hounds as well as an indi- vidual lion's biological characteristics, including sex, age, and reproductive condition. There are other behavioral characteristics the team sifts through. The hounds' handler, Grover Hedrick, drawing from his years of observing and handling lions, says the Wildlife Refuge Specialist Jody Jones pre- pares to secure the immobilized lion with ropes before lowering it to the ground. Mountain lions are symbolic of rugged mountain wilderness, but before the arrival of Euro- peans the animals inhabited all of Montana's ecosystems, including pinion-juniper wood- lands and open prairies. Lions are gradually re-colonizing Montana's central, eastern and northeastern prairies Doug Powell, left, Steve Becker, center, Neil Kadrmas, right cats captured and collared during the Garnet Mountain study quickly treed when they heard baying hounds. Not so with the CMR lions that try to outrun the dogs. So the team postulates, "Is this an adaptation to living in a plains ecosystem that supports few trees, and is there a correlation between the adaptation and the response of not wanting to tree?" CMR lions try to outrun dogs. Is this adaptation not to tree because of the plains ecosystem that sup- ports few trees? Of course researchers already know a lot about mountain lions. For instance, they are charismatic. Wildlife enthusiasts, photographers, and hunters all seek them out. But lions are notoriously elusive, retreat- ing into river bottoms, mountain forests and other wooded areas where they prey on deer, elk, and other big game animals, as well as small mammals, birds, occasionally house pets, and rarely livestock. Even the well-defended porcupine is wary of this cunning, effective predator. Researchers also know that the tawny cat's historical range in the United States included nearly every state prior to European settlement. Throughout the 19th century and into the late-20th, lions were looked upon as varmints and indiscriminately killed. Predator control programs were effective and led to the near extirpation of lion popula- tions by the 1930s. Perpetuation of the species brightened in 1971 when the Montana legislature classified lions as a game animal protected by regulated hunting seasons and bag limits. Conservation initiatives and strategies have also helped populations rebound. www.distinctlymontana.com 17

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