Cougar Management Guidelines

April 18, 2006 Resolutions

Number: 2006-10

 

WHEREAS, cougars (Puma concolor), despite being eliminated from roughly two-thirds of their North American range, are presently the only large, obligate carnivore in self-sustaining populations across western North America; and

WHEREAS, cougars have existed in western North America along with their major prey — mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer (O. virginianus), elk (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces alces), and bighorn sheep (Ovis Canadensis) — for at least 10,000 years; and

WHEREAS, the National Wildlife Federation recognizes in its report, Endangered Cats of North America, that cougars “are among the wildest and most powerful creatures that inhabit our landscape…Cats are powerful icons for pristine, wild space in the United States…and, for many, they conjure up ethical, spiritual, and aesthetic reasons for preserving their place in the American landscape”; and

WHEREAS, The World Conservation Union Species/Survival Commission’s 2002 Red List recently reclassified Puma concolor as “Near Threatened” because of a declining effective population size “due to persecution and degradation of its habitat and prey base, and may possibly qualify as Vulnerable if these trends persist, or if better information on its status were available”; and

WHEREAS, the Cougar Management Guidelines Working Group, a group of 13 wildlife managers, biologists, and scientists, with more than 200 years of cumulative experience in cougar management, policy, and research, after a three-year deliberative process published “The Cougar Management Guidelines” in 2005, which are built on four basic principles:

  1. A large-landscape approach, on the order of thousands of square kilometers of well-connected habitat with thriving natural prey populations, is necessary for healthy, self-sustaining cougar populations;
  2. Cougar management should adopt an adaptive management process;
  3. Cougar management should reflect the full array of human values and input from all stakeholders; and
  4. In light of the diversity of stakeholders and human values, funding for cougar research, management, and conservation should not be derived solely from hunting-related programs; and

WHEREAS, The Cougar Management Guidelines include discussion of each of the following aspects of cougar management:

  1. Cougar-prey relations;
  2. Cougar habitat;
  3. Assessing cougar populations;
  4. Depredation;
  5. Sport hunting;
  6. Strategies to manage cougar-human conflicts; and
  7. Cougar research and management information; and

WHEREAS, the Cougar Management Guidelines Working Group has stated that future editions of the Cougar Management Guidelines will be published as needed to reflect best available science as the body of knowledge expands;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, at its annual meeting assembled March 17-18, 2006, in New Orleans, Louisiana, hereby finds that “The Cougar Management Guidelines” published in 2005 by the Cougar Management Guidelines Working Group are consistent with and will implement the key conservation recommendations for cougars in NWF’s report, Endangered Cats of North America; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation urges all state and federal wildlife agencies to incorporate the Cougar Management Guidelines in any cougar management plan, policy, or regulation.