2 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills
virginianus) and evaluating their use of arboreal lichen (Usnea sp.) (Jenks and Leslie
1988, 1989). The Black Hills region was similar to areas where I’d worked on that
proj ect. For example, the subspecies of deer (dakotensis) that occupied the Black Hills
region was similar in size to those (macrourus) I studied in Oklahoma and Arkansas
(although smaller than the deer [borealis] I studied in Maine). The region also was
punctuated with trees that were at times covered with about as much arboreal lichen
as is found in the balsam fir (Abies balsamea) and white spruce (Picea glauca) forests
of northern Maine (fig. 1.2).
Because of the interest of wildlife man ag ers in the status of white- tailed deer in
the Black Hills (herds had declined since the late 1970s), over my first years at
SDSU, new proj ects were funded in the north, central, and southern regions of the
“Hills.” The proj ects were focused on habitat se lection and nutrition of these deer
populations, in part because of the transition of the region from aspen (Populus tremu-
loides) to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) (fig. 1.3), which was thought to affect pop-
ulation quality. I traveled many times to the region to meet with wildlife officials and
USDA Forest Ser vice employees and to help students ensure that their proj ect goals
were met. It was in early 1998 that I met with South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks em-
ployees to discuss proj ects that would begin in fiscal year 1999. There was some interest
in conducting surveys for mountain lions because of an increase in documented sight-
ings. And there was interest in learning about the status of the pine marten (Martes
figure 1.1. View of the Black Hills from Route 212 looking to the southwest and not far
from the site where scouts from Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer’s reconnaissance of
the Black Hills first viewed the region in 1874. Photo by Adam Kauth.