20 Nebraskaland • November 2019
Lessons
R
eferred to as mountain lion, cougar and several other
names, Puma concolor has become one of the most
discussed wildlife species in the state. For all of that
talking, though, it seems there is always a need to dispel a
few myths and provide accurate information to the public
regarding the species.
Historical accounts of the species in Nebraska, while
sparse, date back to the Stephen H. Long expedition of 1819.
Along with so many other species, cougars disappeared
from Nebraska with Euro-American settlement. Not only
did early settlers slay predators at every opportunity, more
importantly they killed the predators' prey. The decimation
of deer and other prey species in the late 1800s and early
1900s surely made Nebraska a less desirable place for
mountain lions to live.
The return of the mountain lion, not coincidentally, arrived
at about the same time Nebraska was realizing the return of
a flourishing deer population. As the Nebraska Game and
Parks Commission began offering plentiful antlerless-only
permits tags and bonus tags in the 1990s to manage the
burgeoning deer population that was once nearly extirpated,
cougars also found harvest opportunities of their favorite
prey in Nebraska and began showing up to the party. The first
modern confirmation of a mountain lion in Nebraska came in
1991, marking the cats' expansion from large populations
in bordering states where cougar and prey populations had
recovered because of protection by game laws.
In discussions of mountain lion numbers, biologists are
quick to point out that cougars do not adhere to any arbitrary
borders and Nebraska's cats are part of a larger population
that extends to the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Rocky
STORY AND PHOTOS
BY JUSTIN HAAG
Thanks to research in the
Pine Ridge, we are gaining
knowledge about one of Nebraska's
most criticized, treasured and,
of course, misunderstood
repatriates – the cougar.
from
Cat Country
