96 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills
(e.g., adult males and females, females with kittens) of lions (although the sample size
was much higher than during our earlier work).
Diet diversity (in this case, diet richness or the number of diff er ent species con-
sumed) ranged from about 6 to 9 species across females, males, and subadult lions
(Smith 2014). Another notable finding, although not unique to the Black Hills (see
Robinette, Gashwiler, and Morris 1959; Lindzey 1987), was that lions were killing
other predators; both lions and coyotes were found at kill sites. Only a few of these
predators were found, compared to the primary prey of the region, deer, which would
suggest that these kills were rare and likely related to territorial disputes (with
other lions) or competition for food (coyotes killed when attempting to feed at lion kill
sites). Females and subadult lions killed more small deer- sized prey than did adult
males. Adult males were killing larger deer and elk- sized prey. These results make sense
based on the difference in body size between adult males and other sex and age classes
of lions, since the larger the prey item is, the higher the risk of injury to the predator.
Historical folklore suggested that lions only eat prey that they kill, but that belief
had been dispelled by a number of studies that found mountain lions scavenging on
carcasses, including our recent work in North Dakota (Wilckens et al. 2016). What
was unique to the Black Hills, however, was the amount of scavenging by lions. As
mentioned, we successfully captured some mountain lions by baiting them into sites
where we would subsequently place snares around carcasses of deer and other species.
We knew lions would scavenge and took advantage of this be hav ior. Other lion popu-
lations have been documented scavenging in the neighborhood of about 7% of the
time (which we documented for lions that had recently recolonized the North Dakota
Badlands [Wilckens et al. 2016]). However, scavenged carcasses were found at lion
cluster sites up to 39% of the time in the Black Hills. Adult males scavenged most in
winter and less in summer, whereas adult females and subadult lions scavenged less
than males did but generally more than has been found for other lion populations.
Scavenge sites ranged from carcass dump sites established by the South Dakota De-
partment of Transportation to vehicle kills on roads, to carcasses left at hunting camps
after removal of some meat and, if a male, the antlers. To be classified as a scavenged
carcass, there had to be some evidence that the lion did not kill the animal (e.g., evi-
dence of saw marks on bones or missing antler plates [Smith 2014; Wilckens et al.
2016]). Another in ter est ing observation was that there were enough carcasses in some
areas of the Black Hills that a lions could survive and even successfully reproduce by
consuming scavenged carcasses alone. For example, one female lion with a broken leg
survived for six months while feeding kittens by consuming carcasses. After her leg
had healed, the female began making kills again (J. B. Smith, SDSU, pers. commun.).
In 2016 approximately 7,200 elk inhabited the Black Hills outside of Wind Cave
National Park and Custer State Park, as estimated by T. Kirchenmann of the South
Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks (T. Kirchenmann, pers. comm.). Com-
pared to white- tailed deer (approximately 40,000 animals [Cudmore 2017]), which are