Mountain lions are a vital part of Utah's ecosystem; their conservation is a collaborative effort

SALT LAKE CITY — Early Spanish explorers of North and South America first reported seeing a gato monte, or "cat of the mountain," according to historians at the San Diego Zoo.

In Utah, what is most likely referred to as a mountain lion or cougar goes by at least 40 different common names (puma, panther, etc.) throughout its wide range, which extends from northwestern Canada to Argentina. In recent years, however, its range has again been expanding eastward in the United States.

While current estimates vary, there could be as many as 30,000 mountain lions in the U.S., but physical encounters with humans are very rare, the California-based Mountain Lion Foundation reports. The organization that advocates for the cats says mountain lions are secretive ambush hunters that are rarely seen out in the open. They are on the move mostly between dusk and dawn, which makes seeing them even less likely.

Except for cameras, that is.

Utah's foothills and mountain communities are peppered with doorbell and security cameras and these days, those rare physical human encounters on the trail are most likely filmed and end up on social media.

That exaggerates the likelihood of human encounters and attacks — but people are actually more likely to be killed by either cows, deer or domestic dogs than by mountain lions, according to the data. Still, making the case for healthy mountain lion populations becomes more difficult.

Predator vs. prey

In Utah, the study and protection of our apex predator is a collective effort. The state Division of Wildlife Resources, private conservation organizations and researchers at Utah State University and Brigham Young University work together to educate the public and study and protect mountain lion populations — as well as their most frequent source of prey: mule deer.

In his role as the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources game mammals program coordinator, Darren DeBloois has the unenviable task of trying to keep a variety of wildlife interests in the state happy, where the management of mountain lion populations is concerned. Those interested groups range from hunters and livestock owners to animal rights groups, hikers and homeowners.

Opinions about mountain lions can range from them being deserving of no protections whatsoever, to a lion never being euthanized — even after repeated human, livestock or pet interactions. The presence of ever-expanding human development on formerly wild lands, and those all-seeing, ever-present cameras, make DeBloois' job more challenging.

"The reality is those now suburban lions have likely always been there," said DeBloois. "They are simply moving from place to place, but now there is a camera there that allows a person to see them, later, in their yard, in the middle of the night."

The state, according to DeBloois, responds to those reported sightings but it is very rare that the lion will be found and rarer still that pets or backyard livestock are harmed. Farmers and ranchers are compensated in Utah for livestock losses, and some cougars are euthanized following those losses.

Mountain lions are solitary animals that can have a home range of 40-100 square miles or more, according to DeBloois.

DeBloois said it is important for the public to understand that a lion moving through private property or neighborhoods isn't a sign of aggression or hunting behavior. Most often, the lion is simply moving from one place to another within its range — foothill neighborhoods can offer good cover and the shortest path to do so, particularly overnight.

With input from the public and biologists, DeBloois is responsible for creating wildlife management plans that include setting hunting limits for a variety of animals. For mountain lions, he said, those limits are closely tied to Utah mule deer populations.

The state has collared thousands of mule deer with GPS tracking collars in the past decade and three dozen mountain lions so far, across two university studies. This enables a better understanding of the health and movement of each population and the degree of interaction between the two.

With recent droughts, the mule deer population has been declining, which has led to increased hunting limits for mountain lions. DeBloois said the state estimates approximately 2,300 mountain lions call Utah home, though, that number can never be decisively determined.

"We can tell whether mule deer populations are at carrying capacity by their body condition," explained DeBloois. "By recapturing collared deer, we can measure their fat content coming out of summer and see how well prepared they are for winter. We can see how they fared over the winter again in the spring."

Chance encounters stoke fears

Between filmed encounters of mountain lions and news reports of lions euthanized by the state, it is natural that the public becomes more fearful of mountain lions over time.

In September 2022, a jogger in the MiIlcreek area was bitten on the leg by a mountain lion, after falling down while retreating from the startled cat. With the help of a local team of dogs, state wildlife officials found and euthanized the lion.

In December, Unified Police Department officers in Magna shot and killed a mountain lion that had preyed upon a small dog let outside early in the morning.

Wildlife experts, including DeBloois, emphasize the rarity of those types of events and offer the following advice for anyone who runs into a mountain lion, beginning with not being focused on filming the encounter.

• Keep dogs leashed on walks or when hiking. An unleashed dog may chase a lion, leading to an escalation. Never hike alone in mountain lion country — talking and a noisy group can prevent an encounter.
• Stand your ground. Backing up or running away may be viewed as prey behavior and result in a chase you can't win. Back away slowly if the lion is cornered and needs a path to flee.
• Make yourself large. Stand tall, raise and wave your arms or use a jacket or backpack to make yourself look larger. Do not bend over or crouch down. Hold small children off the ground.
• Maintain eye contact and shout at the lion; be as loud as possible.
• If a lion closes the gap between you, use bear or pepper spray, throw rocks or other objects at the lion. Do not break eye contact.
• If you're attacked, fight back with all you have. Do not play dead.

Collaboration for conservation

While studying and tracking ocelots — a much smaller member of the wild cat family — in Peru, Denise Peterson learned about mountain lions (called pumas there). She later sought a move to Utah to rekindle her interest in mountain lions.

Beginning in 2017, Peterson realized infighting between members of the conservation community was stunting progress and set out on her own to form Utah Mountain Lion Conservation, a sponsored group that allows for much greater collaboration both within the organization and with other researchers and conservation groups.

Hunting can be a divisive issue within the conservation community and Peterson said hunters, including hound associations in Utah, share her goals and have offered knowledge and resources that have been very helpful.

Hunting licenses also provide valuable wildlife conservation dollars in Utah.

"In my mind, Utah Mountain Lion's focus is bridging that divide and trying to bring different groups together, and help them realize that if we spend most of our time fighting with one another the lions pay the price," Peterson said.

Her group's primary focus is public education, providing presentations to schools and neighborhood and community groups, to help people better understand mountain lion behavior, their important role in a healthy ecosystem and dispel myths about the cats.

Peterson recalled a recent meeting in Ogden where home camera footage, combined with some forced perspective, convinced residents that two mountain lions were hunting in the neighborhood.

The lions turned out to be domestic house cats, but the informational meeting provided an opportunity to quell fears and explain to residents that even if lions had been present, it would have only been a mother and kitten, not two adults, passing through. Kittens can spend up to two years with their mother, with males typically pushed away sooner than females.

Peterson's group of conservationists also helps homeowners identify simple ways to make their property less inviting for the lions. She recommends not feeding wildlife — particularly deer, not planting landscaping favored by deer, keeping cats and small dogs indoors at night and investing in motion-sensing lights that a stealthy mountain lion would want to avoid.

Utah Mountain Lion Conservation also assists the state and university researchers by offering manpower and expertise. It has camera traps set up all over the Wasatch Front, which monitor everything from mountain lion dens to prey kill sites and suspected traffic areas for lions.

The circle of life

While lions are largely solitary animals, they mark their territory and communicate with one another by leaving scat, urine and physical markings near places known as latrine trees. Being able to identify terrain well-suited to hunting and den-making is also essential when tracking and capturing animals for study.

Morgan Hinton, a predator program biologist at the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said the Utah Mountain Lion Conservation is particularly skilled at identifying the preferred terrain of mountain lions.

"It is very helpful when trying to find lions, or identify where they are most likely to be, when someone can confidently say, 'That's a perfect latrine tree,' or "That ridge is ideal for a mountain lion to ambush prey from,'" Hinton said.

Camera traps are set up in those areas and discovered mountain lions can later be tracked, tranquilized, examined and fitted with GPS collars.

Randy Larsen, a professor of plant and wildlife sciences at Brigham Young University, heads up a study of mountain lion diet and movement, in collaboration with the state Department of Wildlife Resources. The first mountain lion that was fitted with a GPS collar as part of the study — a female named F-39 — was captured 18 months ago.

Since F-39, 29 more mountain lions have been collared and tracked as part of Larsen's study. The genesis of the current study goes back 10 years and involves mule deer. Over the years, technology has improved, making it possible to track the location of a collared mule deer every two hours and for more than four years on a single battery.

Should the location of the collar fail to move for eight hours, Larsen's team gets an email stating the animal is likely deceased, with precise GPS coordinates. BYU students assigned to the study scramble to find the dead animal and perform a field necropsy to determine the cause of death, the overall health of the animal prior to death and, in the case of mountain lion predation, others may set up cameras to monitor the kill in case the lion returns.

With so many collared mule deer and elk, Larsen's team receives an average of one mortality email daily. The causes of death range from natural causes and automobile strikes to predation. The GPS coordinates often offer a clue as to that cause.

"In the case of mule deer, in some places, it's poor habitat that causes deaths," he said. "There isn't enough good food to go around. In others, populations are limited by predators, mostly mountain lions."

Drought in summer can leave mule deer thin going into winter and if that winter brings deep snow, it can be very hard on deer populations — fawns, in particular, will see a high mortality rate. As deer populations decline, mountain lions are also affected.

In addition, there is evidence to suggest that mountain lions may be a keystone species in Utah and beyond. Up to 100 other species of insects, birds and mammals are dependent upon mountain lion kills for scavenged food, according to a scientific paper Larsen recently read.

Because mountain lions are so reclusive, and far more difficult to catch than mule deer, the best way to learn about their diet is to track their prey. By monitoring the areas around prey kill sites, it is also possible to track, capture and collar more lions.

Since the study began, Larsen has been pleasantly surprised it's even been possible to collar 30 lions — he initially doubted they'd collar enough of the elusive predators to make for a legitimate study. He credits the skill and collaboration of everyone involved, and the use of highly trained hounds and their handlers for their success, so far.

Though it's too early in the study to draw any conclusions, another early surprise has been a female lion that traveled throughout Utah and Wyoming before ending up in the Denver area, where she was killed by another lion whose territory she crossed. All prior literature suggests only males would cover such great distances.

"One of the really compelling questions, that has a wildlife management context to it, is prey selection based on the age and sex of the mountain lions," said Larsen.

Big adult males, which can exceed 150 pounds and occasionally top out at over 200 pounds, according to Larsen, may be more focused on deer and elk, while smaller females and younger lions may eat a more varied diet that includes smaller mammals. Knowing to what degree lions may prey upon skunks, beavers and porcupines can help in managing those populations better.

In locations with heavy mountain lion predation, the survival rate of yearling mule deer can be as low as 50%, Larsen said. Only half will make it past year two in those areas.

Since most lions in the study have been tracked for less than a year, Larsen made clear it will be some time before solid data is obtained.

To what degree black bears and coyotes are competing with mountain lions for food, and scavenging mountain lion kills, would also be helpful to know. Since the study began, there has been evidence of mountain lions killing scavenging coyotes and of larger black bears stealing mountain lion kills.

Above all, the Division of Wildlife Resources and Larsen emphasize that healthy predator and prey populations go hand in hand.

Mountain lions are an important part of a healthy Utah ecosystem, and their conservation will continue to be a collaborative effort for years to come.

Related topics