Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

130 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills

numbers of mountain lions reduced the risk of mortality to elk calves (White, Zager,
and Gratson 2010).
From the start of our studies on mountain lions, we always expected that our
results would be directly linked to management of the species and that a harvest season
would be enacted to manage the species to a desired level by providing hunting op-
portunities to the residents of the state. That view was echoed by residents who were
surveyed in 2012 (Gigliotti 2012). Although there had always been relatively strong
support for a harvest season on mountain lions, there was a substantial amount of op-
position to a harvest when it was initially proposed. That opposition resulted in a suit
to obtain an injunction to stop the first harvest in 2005. However, the suit was
overturned, and harvest seasons continued unobstructed after that year. By 2012, any
suspicion that the harvest would result in extinction of the species (see chapter 4),
inbreeding owing to reduced population size (see chapter 7), or harmful diseases that
would negatively affect the population (see chapter 5) seemed to have dis appeared from
the public’s view. In fact, when residents were again asked the question “Do you op-
pose or favor a regulated mountain lion season in South Dakota?,” the same percent-

Table 8.11. Comparison of elk calf survival rates among elk populations

throughout North Amer i ca

Area Summer Winter Annual Source

Eastern populations
Kentucky 0.77 Seward 2003
Michigan 0.90 0.97 0.87 Bender et al. 2002
Pennsylvania 0.92 0.90 0.82 DeVivo et al. 2011
Pennsylvania 0.71 Cogan 1999
North Carolina 0.59 Murrow, Clark, and Delozier
2009

Western populations
California 0.85 Howell et al. 2002
North- central Idaho 0.18 –1 .0 0 White, Zager, and Gratson 2010
North- central Idaho 0.00–0.84 0.06–0.83 Zager, White, and Pauley 2005
North- central Idaho 0.32 Schlegel 1976
Montana 0.82–0.86 Knight 1970
Northern
Yellowstone

0.65 0.72 0.43 Singer et al. 1997

Northern
Yellowstone

0.29 0.90 0.22 Barber- Meyer, Mech, and
White 2008
Northwestern
Wyoming

0.84 0.84 0.58 Smith and Anderson 1998

Northwestern
Wyoming

0.26–0.69 Sauer and Boyce 1983

Southeastern
Washington

0.47 Myers 1999

South Dakota 0.79 0.96 0.75 Simpson 2015

Source: Simpson 2015.