Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

Population Dynamics of Mountain Lions 65

the change in population through time. We believe that pattern is reasonable, but the
absolute estimates are, at best, conservative, because of the lack of information on
mountain lions immigrating to the Black Hills and the fact that the information col-
lected during these studies was not uniformally distributed over the entire region. As
a consequence, there could have been additional mountain lions that would increase
true estimates of population size above these estimates. From a management perspec-
tive, such conservative estimates might be considered beneficial, because the potential
for overharvest would be minimized. Alternatively, from a strict management per-
spective, where reduction in the mountain lion population is the focus, such an ap-
proach might be considered preservationist.

Lit er a ture Cited

Anderson, C. R., Jr., F. G. Lindzey, and D. B. McDonald. 2004. Ge ne tic structure of cougar
populations across the Wyoming Basin: Metapopulation or megapopulation. Journal of
Mamma log y 85:1207–1214.
Clark, D. A., B. K. Johnson, D. H. Jackson, M. Henjum, S. L. Findholt, J. J. Akenson, and R. G.
Anthony. 2014. Survival rates of cougars in Oregon from 1989 to 2011: A retrospective
analy sis. Journal of Wildlife Management 78:779–790.
Culver, M., W. E. Johnson, J. Pecon- Slattery, and S. J. O’Brien. 2000. Genomic ancestry of the
American puma (Puma concolor). Journal of Heredity 9:186–197.

300

250

200

Population estimate

150

100

50

Year

0

199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013

figure 4.15. Refined population model for mountain lions in the Black Hills based on
preliminary modeling (see fig. 4.3) and modified based on mark- recapture results and
harvest reduction. J. A. Jenks, unpublished data; Juarez et al. 2016.