Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Just goes to show why we need to do our part as hunters and put some preds down every year...think if you manage to take 2 bears and you and a buddy manage to bag 2 cougars....we are talking hundreds of deer saved in one year...multiple that by a lot of hunters well it would be a damn good start.
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ourea
A group of 5 cougars that's nuts! God how many deer does that group eat...
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Wow man I would shit myself of I was standing there...a North American pride of lions
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
I have numerous cam sets that have recorded cats with twins and triplets.
Life is good if momma can sustain 2 and even 3 kits into their second year.
They are not living on granola.
Family units that can be as large as 5 to 6 cats will be hard on deer.
I am sure their stalking to kill ratios go up dramatically once the kits get into their second yr before the family unit dissolves.
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scotty30-06
Just goes to show why we need to do our part as hunters and put some preds down every year...think if you manage to take 2 bears and you and a buddy manage to bag 2 cougars....we are talking hundreds of deer saved in one year...multiple that by a lot of hunters well it would be a damn good start.
It's not really a linear relationship with pred control.
You have to consider predator infill (predators are mobile and will quickly claim unoccupied territories) as well as increased litter survival as competition for food sources decreases.
Also, cougars are an intensively managed species in BC. If harvest increases outside the boundaries of the "safe zone" in the population matrix tools, the seasons will be rapidly shortened to keep harvest within safe levels, especially harvest of females which is the ultimate driver of populations.
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Yea fair enough...almost feels like you'll never get a leg up on them lol
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Quote:
Originally Posted by
scotty30-06
Yea fair enough...almost feels like you'll never get a leg up on them lol
In days gone by, cats tended to cycle up and down with the mule deer population.
Now that we have whitetails in traditional muley areas, when the mule deer populations go down, cats will supplement their diets more with whitetails, and the perfect storm of declining mule deer and maintained high cats can be a big problem for mulies.
Really good study on this here: http://www.sgrc.selkirk.ca/bioatlas/...ion_Growth.pdf
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Predators are on the rise over the past twenty years because we don't kill as many of them.... It was not so long ago that every farmer had a rifle in his truck and killed a wolf or bear or...when encountered. And we had garbage dumps in every logging camp that attracted Grizzlies that then had to be killed. In general there was a pile of incidental predator killing going on.
And not long before that (up to the 80s or even the 90s) we had poison in many landscapes that pretty much wiped predators out. And if I'm not mistaken there were more people with cougar dogs who kept them to smaller populations.
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cordillera
Predators are on the rise over the past twenty years because we don't kill as many of them.... It was not so long ago that every farmer had a rifle in his truck and killed a wolf or bear or...when encountered. And we had garbage dumps in every logging camp that attracted Grizzlies that then had to be killed. In general there was a pile of incidental predator killing going on.
And not long before that (up to the 80s or even the 90s) we had poison in many landscapes that pretty much wiped predators out. And if I'm not mistaken there were more people with cougar dogs who kept them to smaller populations.
Your right on all counts
Re: Reason for low ungulate populations