Nebraska Game & Parks Commission considers expanding mountain lion hunting to Wildcat Hills (2024)

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will consider opening up the Wildcat Hills to mountain lion hunting. Commissioners will consider recommendations for a 2025 season during a meeting Friday in Ogallala.

If approved, it will be the first-ever mountain lion season in the Wildcat Hills.

Mountain lions are native to Nebraska, but their populations were destroyed by the 1900s due to unregulated hunting, trapping, poisoning and the decimation of prey species. For nearly 100 years, no verifiable evidence of their presence in Nebraska was documented in the state until 1991, when tracks and a deer kill were documented in Dawes County and a female mountain lion was killed in Sioux County, according to the states mountain lion management plan adopted in 2017.

In 2006, a female mountain lion was documented in the Pine Ridge and a female with a litter of kittens was documented the following year, providing evidence of a mountain lion reproducing population in the state. Populations were later documented in the Wildcat Hills and the Niobrara River Valley near Valentine.

Mountain lion listed as game animal

Under state statute, mountain lions are protected, but were added in 1995 to the state’s list of game animals. In 2010, state statute explicitly defined how and when a person could kill a mountain lion in defense of people or livestock. In 2012, statute allowed the commission to issue permits and create regulations for mountain lion harvest seasons.

Sam Wilson, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission furbearer and carnivore program manager, explained that the management plan sets out the conditions in which the state will allow a mountain lion harvest, or hunting season.

The first mountain lion harvest took place in 2014 in the Pine Ridge. Since 2019, a mountain lion harvest has been held in the Pine Ridge unit every year. In 2024, a harvest was allowed in the Niobrara Valley for the first time.

In the Pine Ridge unit, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks, genetic surveys have estimated that there are 70 mountain lions, up from an estimate of 33 in 2021.

Wilson said, “In our mountain lion management plan, we state that if mountain lion populations are resilient and healthy and can sustain the harvest, that we will hold the harvest. That’s kind of the crux of it,” he said, explaining that the commission looks at the balance of the mountain lion, its prey and the habitat in making such a determination. A harvest “is also held at a level that landowners are willing to accept.”

Twenty-seven mountain lions were documented in that Niobrara Valley unit in 2023. Though a survey of the Niobrara and Wildcat Hills areas are presently being conducted and not expected to be complete until fall, Wilson said that 24 mountain lions were documented in the Wildcat Hills in 2023.

“We have our GPS collaring mountain lion project. We also collect genetic information and have our trail camera surveys that we use and whatever mountain lions are documented, we note that,” he said

The Nebraska Game and Parks also reported six mortalities of mountain lions in the Wildcat Hills area, which is factored into its discussion’s regarding the population. Mortalities such as roadkill strikes, natural mortalities including fights with other mountain lions and accidental trapping are among the factors resulting in the death of mountain lions. Mortalities from wildfires in the Wildcat Hills have also impacted mountain lion habitats.

“The really important things that we look at are: What’s the total number of animals in the area? Do we have multiple, adult reproducing females? Because when you hold the harvest season, like the harvest season that’s proposed for the Wildcat Hills, there’s a limit to the number of overall animals that can be harvested, and then there’s a limit to the number of females. And the reason to limit the number of females is to make sure that the population is healthy over the long term, that’s it’s resilient, that it can rebound from the harvest. So we are certainly looking at how many adult females do we believe are in this population, and how many instances of reproduction?”

The balance of prey animals is also evaluated – bighorn sheep, deer and elk, for example — is also part of the equation. Though Wilson said he couldn’t speak specific numbers about those species, he said reports are that the bighorn sheep population is flourishing and deer and elk populations were reduced in an effort to reduce depredation of land.

The goal of the state’s management plan is to manage the presence of the mountain lion, “at the right level that people are willing to live with.”

Opposing mountain lion hunting

Colin Croft, a homeowner in the Wildcat Hills, is among those who are opposed to the Nebraska Game and Parks opening up the Wildcat Hills to a mountain lion harvest. Surveys from organizations such as the Mountain Lion Foundation and others show that the vast majority of Nebraskans don’t support hunting of the mountain lion.

Croft told the Star-Herald that his interest in mountain lions and advocacy began “by accident” in about 2017-18 when he installed trail cameras on his Wildcat Hills property and property he owns in Sioux County. He captured mountain lions on his cameras, which spurred his interest.

“It really grabs your attention, and it prompted me to want to learn more (about mountain lions),” he said, explaining that like most Nebraskans, he hadn’t thought about Nebraska Game and Park policies and procedures until developing that interest. Today, he said, he estimates he has had 150 different observations of mountain lions via his trail cameras.

“I really didn’t know the details of how Game and Parks and state agencies like that kind of did their business and determined their policies, so all of that became part of my learning curve that was driven by the interest in seeing those first mountain lions on trail cameras. And, really, it’s only kind of deepened since …”

Croft acknowledges that agencies like the Nebraska Game and Parks “are in a tough spot” in managing historical views of wildlife and the more diverse and complicated views of today as conservation of species and habitat increase. Having hunted and fished himself, he said, he believes he can be “responsible and respectful” in opposing policies and procedures, such as the Game and Parks management of mountain lions, “even if I’m a critical voice that is expressing a different view.”

Croft has become an advocate for mountain lions, joining organizations like and learning about mountain lion policies in neighboring states such as Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado, as well as others. He points to a “historical” view that mountain lions, coyotes, foxes and even beavers should be hunted, though they have no value aside from being furbearing animals. Hunting for mountain lions is simply sport, he said, with no value for food, such as deer or elk.

“I think (Nebraska Game & Parks) view on a lot of species is, if it can be hunted, it should be, and I don’t take that view,” Croft said.

Educating others about mountain lions

He said he believes that societal attitudes of today need to also be a factor in considerations. Though the Nebraska Game and Parks report suggests that landowners and societal attitudes are supportive of a harvest in the Wildcat Hills, Croft counters that view. Though discussions on the mountain lion and a possible harvest occurred at a Big Game meeting held by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in December involved some persons expressing support, and even concerns, Croft said that he doesn’t feel the meeting was promoted as including those discussions ahead of time. If it were, he said, he feels that landowners, and even area residents, with a specific interest in the mountain lion harvest issue would have been in attendance.

Croft even points to that meeting as evidence that the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission should do a better job of educating the public about mountain lions. Generally, Croft said, he feels that Nebraska Game and Parks should take more of a stance of presenting research that shows that fears or misinformation about mountain lions is unfounded, rather than a stance that he feels reinforces those beliefs.

There have been zero depredations of livestock documented in the Wildcat Hills unit, which Wilson confirmed. According to Croft’s research, he said only 10 depredation incidents have been documented in the 33 years that the state has been conducting research and documenting mountain lions. Evidence – both in the population of mountain lions, it’s prey species and adverse incidents – doesn’t support a need to hunt mountain lions in the Wildcats, or even the state, Croft said.

“Nebraska clearly allows people to kill mountain lions in the case of real depredation, and that really has nothing to do with sport hunting,” Croft said.

According to Croft, research shows that a harvest contributes to an increase in mountain lion mobility that creates some of the issues that people are concerned about. Also, he said, news reports and even social media posts that go viral about mountain lion sightings have contributed to false perceptions that there has been an increase in mountain lion sightings or incidents, he said.

Attacks on humans by mountain lions are rare, he said. The Mountain Lion Foundation reports that there have been 29 cases of fatal mountain lion attacks — not all confirmed — in North America since 1868, which results in an average of about .18 fatal attacks per year.

Educating people about mountain lions is one reason that Croft has formed a Facebook group, Nebraskans Living with Mountain Lions. On the page, he said, he shares trail camera videos and photos of the mountain lions, talks about their tendencies, and other facts to inform people about mountain lions and counter some of the misinformation online. Though mountain lions are social animals amongst their own, they avoid populated areas and contact with humans. They basically “keep to themselves,” he said.

Though there are instances of mountain lions coming into populated areas, he argues that such instances should be considered individually, not reflecting on the entire species. Cases in which officials have to kill a mountain lion are usually based on sound reasoning and are usually an exception.

Croft said allowing a mountain lion harvest is simply about supporting “trophy hunting.”

“This is primarily a trophy animal, and even among hunters, trophy hunting isn’t particularly popular.”

Just because a harvest season could be allowed doesn’t mean that it should be allowed, he said.

“My argument is that Game & Parks hasn’t made a convincing case, either biologically or certainly socially (to support a mountain lion harvest),” Croft said.

In regards to Nebraska Game and Parks policy and its management plan, a specific population target before allowing a harvest isn’t set by the commission, Wilson said. He said factors such as how far a mountain lion population is from other source populations, populations of prey species and other factors are among the considerations.

Nebraska Game and Parks has been doing research intensively on mountain lions in Nebraska since 2010, he said, and the first collaring of a mountain lion occurred in the Wildcat Hills in 2015. Since then, officials have ear tagged kittens born in the Wildcat Hills and documented trail photos of females with kittens, in addition to genetic surveys. Though officials weren’t able to previously create population estimates, Wilson said they are now confident in the number of mountain lions that they documented in 2023, female mountain lions and reproductive events, that a harvest season should be allowed in the Wildcat Hills.

“We are absolutely confident that the population could sustain a harvest,” he said.

The proposal that commissioners will consider is a harvest of three mountain lions, with a sublimit of two females, in the Wildcat Hills unit. That means only three mountain lions will be allowed to be killed during a season, but if two females are killed, the harvest season would immediately stop. Young mountain lions, identified by their markings, aren’t allowed to be harvested.

As Nebraska Game and Parks Commission gets more data as its current study is completed, he said, the numbers of mountain lions allowed to be harvested could change. The commission will also consider the mountain lion harvests allowed in the Pine Ridge and Niobrara Valley units at the Friday meeting.