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NEW MEXICO'S COUGARS & BEARS
IN JEOPARDY
Game Commission to set 4-year regulations
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 As top-level predators, cougars help maintain ecosystem health.
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Longtime followers of Animal Protection of New Mexico know we are committed to New Mexico’s cougars. Over the past decade, APNM (partnering with WildEarth Guardians and Sierra Club - Rio Grande Chapter) has worked with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (Department) and the New Mexico Game Commission (Commission) to undo unscientific and needlessly destructive practices that have worked against New Mexico’s cougars.
Charting a new course, APNM has advocated for new methods of cougar management in unprecedented collaboration with state agencies. Management that balances a scientific understanding of cougar habitat and biology with the continuing need for public safety was long overdue. The Department and the Commission, to their credit, have responded to the public’s call for more sound cougar management policies and enacted many positive revisions to regulations in recent years.
Now, however, the Department is proposing to roll back cougar management not just by a decade but seemingly by a century, to the senseless predator hunts in the early days of New Mexico statehood. The Department has recently recommended a 140% increase in cougar hunting for the next four years. As outlined in Bear and Cougar Rule (19.31.11, NMAC), up to 1,180 lions may be killed per year with no scientific justification provided by the Department. Despite evidence that female cougars are the main driver of population stability, the Department proposal increases the female kill quota by 263% and removes female sub-limits by hunting zone, allowing hunting to continue even when females number five or fewer. See the Department proposals here.
We need your help to stop these tragic proposals from taking effect next year. Join APNM in contacting the New Mexico Game Commission to make the following requests:
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 Female cougars and kittens are particularly threatened by the proposed hunt quotas.
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The NMDGF cougar quotas should be decreased, not increased, to reflect an overall statewide goal of maintaining the cougar population. The quotas should be based on scientifically derived population totals by zone. Female subquotas should be mandatory, and should be based on the best available science.
- The Game Commission’s four-year regulatory cycles are too rigid to adaptively manage cougar populations and will effectively shut out public input until 2014. The Commission should enact annual review and revision of cougar management utilizing the latest data and public comments.
- Killing cougars to ostensibly "protect" bighorn sheep should be immediately stopped. More analysis is needed to determine if killing cougars is helping bighorn sheep survive. Since New Mexico's cougar population can only be guessed, conservative management practices should always be applied.
New Mexico Bears Also Under Fire
These disastrous cougar hunt quotas won't stand up to scrutiny. But there's more. NMDGF has also set its sights on the state’s black bear population while similarly giving little scientific justification for its proposal. The department, after increasing the 2010 bear hunt quota from 335 to 406, is now proposing that up to 733 bears may be killed annually for the next four years. If enacted, these proposals would dangerously reduce bear populations in New Mexico.
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 New Mexico's bears can't survive the unsustainable hunt proposal by NM Game and Fish.
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The recommendations for bear management in 2011-2015, outlined in the department's Bear and Cougar Rule, are based on a bear population matrix that is questionable, given that NMDGF has never conducted a comprehensive population study for bears. To bolster its impossible-to-prove population totals, the department has unfortunately fallen back on sensationalist stories of bear attacks and property damage that have little quantifiable value or relevance to their proposal.
As with the cougar hunt proposals, females will unnecessarily suffer under the new management policies, with 318 female bears authorized to be killed per year. Black bear populations have slow reproduction rates (a study of New Mexico's black bears revealed that females cannot reproduce until age six) and only half of black bear cubs will reach adulthood.
Please join us in contacting the New Mexico Game Commission—the final authority for game management—with these asks for bears:
- The NMDGF bear quotas should revert back to the total quota of 335 per year for 2011. Hunt quotas per year should be based on a scientific understanding of bear biology.
- To maintain adequate female bear populations, an education course in bear identification by sex should be mandatory for individuals seeking bear hunting permits.
- The Commission should enact annual review and revision of bear management utilizing the latest data and public comments. The Game Commission’s current four-year regulatory cycles are too rigid to adaptively manage bear populations and will effectively shut out public input until 2014.
Please contact each member of the New Mexico Game Commission right away to support our state's cougars and bears. Their final decision will be made on September 30th at the Game Commission meeting in Ruidoso.
Jim McClintic (Chairman)
P.O. Box 21027, Albuquerque, NM 87154
(505) 271-4550
Fax: (505) 271-2472
jmsconst@comcast.net
Sandy Buffett (Vice-Chair)
320 Aztec Street, Suite B
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
Fax: (505) 986-0339
sandyNMGC@gmail.com
Tom Arvas
7905 Spain, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109
(505) 293-3515
tomarvas@hotmail.com
M.H. "Dutch" Salmon
PO Box 878, Silver City, NM 88062
(575) 388-3763
Fax: (575) 388-5705
dutch@high-lonesomebooks.com
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Gary Fonay
5333 North Baggett,
Hobbs, NM; 88242
(575) 492-1533
GWFonay@aol.com
Kent Salazar
1621 Vassar Drive, SE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505) 242-6125
kentsala@aol.com
Thomas "Dick" Salopek
975 Holcomb Road,
Las Cruces, NM 88007
(575) 526-5946
Fax: (575) 526-0867
DickSalopek@hotmail.com
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In addition to your phone calls, letters and emails, APNM highly encourages animal advocates to attend public Game Commission hearings whenever possible. The next meeting is coming up this Saturday in Albuquerque:
Albuquerque Marriott - Grand Ballroom
2101 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM
August 28, 2010
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
[Meeting agenda in pdf]
With your help, we can reverse course
and make a cougar & bear-friendly New Mexico!
[Follow APNM on Facebook]
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