New Mexico Cougar Hunting Reduced!
Other Aspects of Regulations Still Need Improvement

For decades, cougar management in New Mexico has not been based on biological principles; this resulted in excessive cougar “quotas” for at least ten years. Animal Protection of New Mexico (APNM) has been working to change that, and our most recent exhaustive research on cougar management as well as negotiations with New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) yielded meaningful results.

In September, the New Mexico Game Commission (NMGC) voted to reduce the number of cougars that hunters could kill. APNM is hopeful that this and other changes to the regulations represent the beginning of better cougar management for New Mexico, even though the approved approach still needs improvement.

In addition to conducting research and making recommendations to NMDGF, in August and September, APNM teamed up with Sinapu (now Wild Earth Guardians) –a Colorado-based conservation group–and made ten public presentations about cougars and New Mexico’s regulations. Events in Taos, Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Grants, Ruidoso, Las Cruces, and Siver City drew over 300 people and prompted substantial feedback to NMDGF on cougar management.

At the September meeting of the NMGC, commissioners adopted these changes recommended by APNM:

• cougar population estimates are now based on habitat mapping specific to cougars–this significant change resulted in a reduction in cougar hunting because population estimates are now based on better information;
  
• NMDGF personnel will evaluate the age and sex of cougars killed in the state as a way to estimate the health of the state’s cougar population–the age of females will be determined by extracting a tooth from every one killed; and
  
• if the percentage of cougars killed in any unit is 20% or more for two years in a row, female sub-limits may be implemented in that unit (APNM requested female sub-limits in certain units where females comprise 20% or more of the kill–that was not approved.)
  

These new regulations move cougar management in a better direction, but APNM is still unsatisfied with certain aspects of the regulations: in particular that NMDGF has two separate cougar kill quotas: one for hunting and one for cougars killed for depredation, on private land, and in areas such as bighorn sheep units. That NMDGF is–for the first time–keeping track of all cougar kills is commendable, but NMDGF does not maintain separate quotas for any other species. In addition, other cougar biologists do not recommend this approach, and to our knowledge no other state manages cougars or any other species this way.

APNM will continue to push for continued improvements in cougar regulations in the future with your help. And if you attended a presentation, sent in comments, or have attended a Game Commission meeting during this decision-making cycle, thank you for getting involved and helping us improve the laws governing one of New Mexico’s biggest wild cats.

> Continue: Cougar Campaign Overview