Got A Washington Cougar Tag? Remember To Check Quota Daily

There’s a new wrinkle for Washington deer hunters who might also have a cougar tag in their pocket come this weekend’s rifle buck opener.

Unlike past years and their general fall mountain lion season, hunting is now controlled by quotas, and that makes it critical to check WDFW’s cougar hunting website or information hotline (1-866-364-4868; press 2 after the greeting) daily to find out if harvest is still open before pulling the trigger on a big cat.

It might be tough getting reception to check on the quota in some hunting locations, what with the holes sportsmen often prowl or set up camp in, but the status of any given hunt will not switch from open at 5 a.m. to closed by 2 p.m.

“The website and hotline are updated the day before any change goes into effect; so, whatever information is available that morning is in effect for that entire day,” said Jennifer Becar, a WDFW spokeswoman.

Look for the agency to put out a reminder to hunters this week.

While the new rules have been in effect since September 1, the October modern firearms deer opener is probably the Evergreen State’s most well-attended single hunting event of the year, and many riflemen carry a cougar tag just in case they bump into a lion while pursuing blacktails, whitetails or muleys. Same goes for hunters during the Eastside and Westside rifle elk seasons later in fall.

Already, two population management units and their four game units have closed to cougar hunting for the season because they’ve met their quotas – Mount Spokane (GMU 124), Mica Peak (GMU 127) and Cheney (GMU 130) in the Spokane area as of October 1 and Battle Ground (GMU 564) around Vancouver on September 1. Forty-eight PMUs and their 130-plus GMUs are still open at this writing.

The season structure change came out of a petition from environmental activists for new, more restrictive rules around cougar hunting and was rushed into place for this season by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Under the new regulations, season runs in a single stretch, September 1-March 31 – there is no more winter quota hunt – unless the harvest cap of 13 or 20 percent is met beforehand.

The 13 percent cap is based on what’s known as the cougar population’s “intrinsic growth rate”, while the 20 percent cap will be used for those units where all causes of mortality – human conflict removals, depredation removals, roadkill, etc. – hit 13 percent before September 1 and would have otherwise led to the PMU’s closure even before season opened.

(Previously, WDFW used a growth rate of 10 to 16 percent, which spit out a range of acceptable harvest, i.e., five to seven cats, nine to 12, but now it’s a hard single figure for each PMU.)

Counting towards the cap begins April 1 and runs through March 31 of the following year. The inclusion of non-hunting mortality effectively penalizes hunters for other cougar deaths before and during season and will be especially impactful in areas with high human and/or livestock conflict such as Northeast Washington and Klickitat County.

The annual cougar limit is also back to one per season, ending the potential to take two in the Blue Mountains to help out a hard-bitten elk herd.

Cougar hunters are required to report their kills within 72 hours (1-866-364-4868; press 3 after the greeting). You will be asked your name, WDFW WILD ID, date of the harvest, sex of the cougar and GMU it was taken in. Unfrozen carcasses with evidence of sex attached must also be presented to WDFW within five days of the kill for sealing and sampling.

Editor’s note: For tips on hunting cougars and two delicious recipes, see the October issue of Northwest Sportsman. And consider this thoughtful essay on hunting predators by Jillian Garrett.