In its 2001 Strategic Plan, AZGFD stated that the goals of its mountain lion management strategy were to “manage the mountain lion population, its numbers and distribution as an important part of Arizona’s fauna provide mountain lion hunting (including hunting with dogs) and other related recreational opportunities.” The department’s stated objectives are to: For several years now AZGFD has consistently increased quotas and bag limits in several of their Game Management Units (GMUs) in an effort to reduce the resident population of mountain lions, citing concern about the health and well-being of bighorn sheep and mule deer populations. According to this policy, the Department can increase the number of lions killed by hunters or trappers, or authorize department personnel and other individuals to kill mountain lions to achieve these policy ends. Among other things, this policy in part called for killing individual mountain lions or suppressing resident mountain lion populations where ungulate numbers (deer, elk, big horn sheep, etc.) are considered to be below AZGFD management goals, or when conducting transplants of species such as bighorn sheep and pronghorn. In the year 2000, Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) established a wildlife predation management policy. In 1990, the state’s depredation policy changed to require that there be an actual loss of livestock prior to lethal removal of mountain lions. During the 51 years Arizona’s mountain lion bounty was in effect, 7,723 mountain lions were killed and turned in to the government for the bounty.Īt the same time that lions were listed as big game animals, the Arizona legislature revised Statue 17-302 to allow the killing of mountain lions for depredation purposes. While Arizona reclassified mountain lions as “big game” animals in 1970, the bounty law remained on the books as a non-funded program until its repeal in 1990. In 1919, mountain lions in Arizona were classified as a “predatory animal” by the territorial legislature and a bounty of $50 was paid for each one killed. History of Mountain Lion Management in Arizona This program continued in Arizona until roughly fifty years ago. On my trail cameras they look as big as the tigers at the zoo it’s awesome and a little spooky.Like most states, Arizona’s first lion management plan took the form of paying a bounty for every lion killed where the pelt was turned over to authorities. Over 500 camping trips growing up and never seen one so close. Almost cartoonish it was so big, I see why many locals don’t go outside after dark, and have a new respect for the forrest at night. Once after loading wood into my truck and getting in, seen him in my mirror about 10 feet away, freakishly big head.
Next morning I see that it’s paws were 9 feet from front to back! I was in shock, that’s a big friggn kitty, that almost tried to eat me. It obviously took off bounding loudly down a near by gully.
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Quickly thinking I don’t want to deal with over 100lbs of dead cat, plus I like nature so didn’t want to kill it, so I pulled my gun from my holster and shot in its direction, purposely missing the huge cat. About third glance over my shoulder, I see what at first made me think of two pieces of reflective tape, as my eyes adjusted I noticed it was in fact a large cat crouched low and getting ready to jump… on me lol. One night I had heard a deer passing through(they are ridiculously loud on the dry underbrush) so I kept looking that direction as I got my wood stove going. I Live on 21 acres up against a national forest in California and lucky enough a large male cougar frequents the area. An exaggerated record might be the 170 kilogram weight of a puma killed in 1958 in the Chaco region of Paraguay reported in Sports Afield Hunting Annual. They say the 276 pound weight is unreliable and might have been exaggerated. This is considerably more that the reported number referred to by Wikipedia: 1901 – 232 pounds. This reference is used by Wild Cats Of The World by Mel and Fiona Sunquist at page 254. Washington, DC: American Wildlife Institute. Coleman, The Puma, mysterious American cat, 1-173. 1946 History, life habits, economic status, and control, part 1. If you add back the intestines which at a guess would have weighed several pounds you could argue that this cat weighed in the region of 280 pounds. Without intestines (removed for some reason perhaps to preserve the body) the cat weighed 125 kilograms. It must have pleased him to have killed such a magnificent creature. The cat was an Arizona puma killed in 1917 by a predator hunter i.e. There will be a dispute about this but I believe that I have a definitive record for the largest or heaviest (should be the same) mountain lion on record because it was certified by the U.S.