Cougar

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Wildlife advocates have petitioned the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission to repeal two rules the commission adopted several years ago that allowed hunters to harvest more cougars and bears.

The petition claims the rules were politically driven and threaten cougar and bear populations.

“We are asking the commission to return to a science-based management policy before it is too late for the state’s cougars and bears,” Washington Wildlife First President Claire Loebs Davis said in a statement.

The commission has 60 days to respond. Since the rules passed, Gov. Jay Inslee has appointed six new members to the nine-member commission.

The cougar rule, passed in 2020, increased the maximum number of cougars that could be harvested to 373 from 244 a year. Fish and Wildlife estimates the state has about 2,300 cougars.

Hunters have not come close to the 373-cougar limit and there has not been an upward trend in the number of cougars harvested since the rule passed.

Hunters killed an average of 203 cougars a year in the five years before the rule passed. Since the rule passed, hunters have killed an average of 204 cougars a year, according to Fish and Wildlife records.

More hunters are buying cougar-hunting licenses. Wildlife advocates argue the lack of success suggests the cougar population is declining.

Wildlife advocates also argue that young male cougars move into territories where adult male cougars have been killed, increasing the density of cougars in the area.

Besides restoring the pre-2000 cougar hunting rule, wildlife advocates propose counting cougars removed for public safety toward the cap on killing cougars in individual game management units. 

“Killing too many cougars leads to a greater density of young male cougars who are more likely to be involved in conflicts, which leads people to demand that the agency allow them to kill more cougars, which leads to more conflicts … and so on, in an endless loop,” Loebs Davis said in an email.

Hunters Heritage Council President Mark Pidgeon said most cougars are killed in chance encounters with hunters looking for other game.

Cougar harvest is unlikely to increase unless state lawmakers allow hunters to use hounds, he said. “I don’t think that has a prayer of passing.” 

Wildlife advocates accuse the commission of bowing to rural residents who complained about predators, particularly at a commission meeting March 1, 2019, in Spokane.

Northeast Washington residents told commissioners that predators, including cougars, were a menace. One man said he feared a child would end up in a casket.

The wildlife advocates’ petition dismisses the testimony as “anecdotal” and “not informed by science.”

Instead of “assuming a leadership role by educating the public,” the department acquiesced to a “small but vocal minority,” according to the petition.

The bear rule, passed in 2019, increased the bag limit to two bears from one bear per season and lengthened hunting seasons.

Hunters killed 2,211 bears during the 2022-23 general hunting season, according to Fish and Wildlife, compared to 1,386 bears during the season before the rule was passed. The petition claims the level of bear harvest is unsustainable.

Fish and Wildlife estimates the state has 20,000 to 25,000 bears, according to a department spokesperson.

The other groups that signed the petition are the Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States, Mountain Lion Foundation, WildFutures, Predator Defense, Coexisting with Cougars in Klickitat County and Kettle Range Conservation Group.