One factor in any wildlife management program is predator control. Here at the ranch, I am seeing a lot of Mountain Lions, I saw 9 lions on the ranch during the 2009 summer while on the ranch working. Then with the amount of sign I see on a daily basis I feel that the number of lions in the area are definatly a factor affecting the decline in our mule deer numbers.
So far for the 2009 – 2010 Mountain Lion season, I have been on 4 successful lion hunts (lion in a tree). Yesterday we walked for about 5 hours casting the hounds out and ran a track but lost daylight before we could tree the cat.
In addition to being able to harvest a few lions off the ranch the experience of a lion hunt is awesome. Great exercise, opportunity to learn the habits of a very secretive creature, and at times a very exciting experience as this picture I took can contest for.
