8 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills
observed an overall increase in reported sightings from 1995 to 1999, but those sight-
ings were not randomly distributed in the Black Hills. When the numbers of reported
sightings were adjusted for county population size, more reports were obtained from
the southern counties (Custer and Fall River counties) than the northern counties
(Lawrence and Pennington counties) (fig. 1.7). In addition, from 1996 to 1999 more
mountain lion deaths were reported in the southern two counties (58%) than in the
counties of the northern Black Hills (42%) (Fecske, Jenks, and Lindzey 2003). This was
the period when I was involved in studies of white- tailed deer in the Black Hills.
During those studies, which began in the northern (early 1990s) and extended to the
central (mid 1990s) Black Hills, no mortalities of radio- collared deer were categorized
as resulting from mountain lion predation, although a mountain lion sighting occurred
near Deerfield Lake in the central Black Hills during the mid 1990s.
When we began our work on the mountain lion, Chuck Anderson was conducting
a study (Anderson 2003) that genet ically compared mountain lions throughout
Wyoming. He had helped train my first gradu ate student, Dorothy (Fecske) Wells, who
studied mountain lions and asked for blood samples to add to his study. We supplied
a few samples from our first captures in the Black Hills, which had a slightly lower
figure 1.6. Locations of other mountain ranges with established mountain lions
populations west of the Black Hills region. Figure by Dan Thompson.