From Animal Protection New Mexico

General Information and Talking Points

• Bears and cougars are now known to be extremely important to the integrity of our ecosystems. Both species can self-regulate their own numbers. Therefore, erring on the side of killing fewer of these animals is not problematic. Killing too many can impact their populations for a long time.
• Killing Bears and Cougars at random for recreation and trophies does not help address conflict with humans. In fact, it may exacerbate conflict. Trophy hunters typically target larger, established individuals for their kills, disrupting important bear and cougar social structures. Bears and cougars are territorial animals, and if an individual who is not involved in conflict is killed, a younger and less experienced individual who is more prone to conflicts may move into the vacant territory.
• Bears and cougars are extremely hard to count accurately, so Game and Fish should exercise extreme caution when calculating kill quotas, to ensure the populations are not negatively affected. Current proposals to raise the kill quotas are reckless, don’t apply the best available science, and ignore dangerously changing climate conditions. Adding more bear hunting permits and starting the season earlier in the heat of summer will likely result in more bears dying. This is both reckless and cruel.
• The hunting proposals lack scientific rigor. There is no management plan detailing measurable objectives for these species, and no attempt to address the uncertainty of the population estimates. Transparency is so lacking that the public has no way of knowing how the populations for either species have been derived. And there has been no external review of those population estimates by independent, outside experts. In short, the hallmarks of good science, which the people of New Mexico deserve when it comes to wildlife management, are absent in the hunting rules proposed for bears and cougars.
• NM has recently experienced severe drought and wildfires, both of which will almost certainty continue and intensify into the next four years. There is no indication that NM Game and Fish has accounted for these factors in their habitat or population estimates. Our climate trends weigh in favor of lowering kill quotas, not raising them.
• Scientifically rigorous studies of bears and cougars have recently been conducted in New Mexico, but the areas where data exist are very limited. Moreover, given the newness of these studies, they are only a snapshot of the current population in a given area. We do not yet have long-term on-the-ground field studies of bear and cougar populations throughout the state that could indicate population trends. Absent good data, the department should be exercising great caution with managing the population of bears and cougars.
• Both bears and cougars are mostly hunted using dogs that chase them, following their scent until the exhausted animal seeks refuge and rest by climbing a tree. The hunter will then find the dogs, usually by using their electronic collar beacons as they keep the animal treed. When the hunter arrives at the scene, the hunter will shoot the animal at point blank range. Even segments of the hunting community find this practice contrary to Fair Chase hunting principles. Surveys of the general public also show opposition to killing bears and cougars using these methods for ‘trophies’ and recreation. Ask NM Game and Fish to consider broad public opinion and adopt hunting rules that ban the use of dogs in cougar and bear hunting.

Where is the peer-reviewed scientific data? To me, that is the big question. According to the Mountain Lion Foundation, “Current hunting and trapping practices in New Mexico place the cougar population at risk.”