GF&P proposing 50 lion kill count

The South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks (GF&P) Commission is proposing another increase in the amount of mountain lions that could be harvested during the 2011 season, and once again is recommending more lions be harvested than recommended by GF&P staff.

The commission met Aug. 5-6 in Aberdeen, and recommended allowing 50 lions to be killed, five more than the 45 proposed by GF&P staff. Five of the lions would be killed in Custer State Park, which has asked for a hunt to take place within its boundaries. Dogs will be allowed on the hunts within the park boundaries. Tags for those five lions will be drawn, and will cost $305. The cost of a lion tag outside the park would be $25.

In addition to the increase in total lions, the female sub-limit for harvested lions would rise from 25 to 30, meaning the season would end when either 30 female lions were killed, or 50 total were killed.

Mike Kintigh, regional supervisor for GF&P, said GF&P staff provided the commission with many graphs and population modeling data to help it makes its decision. The staff’s proposal for 45 lions to be taken would have seen GF&P’s desire for the Hills to have 175 lions living in it with two years. However, GF&P staff also provided the commission with data on what the population would look like with a 50 or 60-lion kill, and the commission decided to take a slightly more aggressive approach that is predicted to get the lion population in the Hills to 175 by the beginning of the 2012 hunting season.

“It’s a not biologically unsound,” Kintigh said. “It’s not going to wipe the lions out.”