Mountain Lion Foundation

Mountain Lions in South Dakota

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South Dakota Mountain Lion Habitat

Click Here for 2010-2015 Mountain Lion Management Plan Information

The state of South Dakota encompasses 75,896 square miles of land. Of this, the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish & Parks (SDGF&P) considers only the Black Hills region of the state (5,220 square miles), or less than seven percent of the state's land area, as viable mountain lion habitat. This distinction is purely artificial and based solely on the Department's determination to restrict their management oversight of the South Dakota's mountain lion population to a small corner of the state. The National GAP Analysis Programs listing of suitable habitat, and prey species probability virtually guarantees that mountain lions could exist anywhere within the state.

The Black Hills Regional Characteristics
Isolated by the surrounding grasslands of the Northern Great Plains, the Black Hills are part of the eastern most extension of the Rocky Mountains, and are located in west-central South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. The Black Hills are dome-shaped, sloping more steeply to the east than to the west with a high elevation of 7,241 feet above mean sea level. Forest cover in the Black Hills is predominantly ponderosa pine with codominants of white spruce and quaking aspen at higher elevations. Large ungulate prey species available to mountain lions include: white-tailed deer, mule deer elk, bighorn sheep, and mountain goats. In addition, porcupine and voles are commonly consumed by mountain lions in the Black Hills region.

South Dakota Mountain Lion Population Estimates
It is believed that the last mountain lion was extirpated in South Dakota in 1906. Over the next sixty-plus years, a few transient mountain lions originating in Wyoming would wander into the state, but this must have been a fairly rare occurrence because despite a bounty placed on every mountain lion killed in South Dakota there are no reports of a lion being killed until 1931, with the next not occurring until 1959.

 In 1997, based on unverified anecdotal information, SDGF&P estimated that somewhere between 40 to 50 mountain lions resided in the Black Hills with an additional 15-25 on the western South Dakota prairie. Six years latter the Department claimed that the results of a five-year research project indicated a population estimate of 127-149 lions (an almost 300 percent increase) within the Black Hills ecosystem alone.

 In SDGF&P's 2010 Mountain Lion Management Plan, the Department now estimates that 251 mountain lions (138 adults and 113 kittens) reside in the Black Hills region of the state. While MLF has no direct knowledge of as to how many mountain lions there really are, we have difficulty accepting this "official" count, especially since it is being used to justify a drastic increase in the upcoming mountain lion hunting quotas. MLF's review of the management plan found incorrect numbers, flawed mathematical equations, a series of bad scientific practices and assumptions, and a complete disregard of the basic biological and behavioral qualities of the species.

 As of June 2010, MLF's best estimate of South Dakota's mountain lion population would place it closer to the number range espoused by the Department back in 2003 with a total--both adult as well as kittens--not exceeding 149 lions.

 History of Mountain Lion Management in South Dakota
From 1889 to 1966, a bounty was placed on mountain lions by the South Dakota legislature. Despite an assumed abundance of the species, mountain lions were effectively extirpated from the state by 1906 with only two reported lion deaths (1931 & 1959) occurring over the next sixty years. Concurrent bounty programs and unregulated hunting practices in surrounding states suppressed the entire region's mountain lion population and prevented recolonization of the species in South Dakota until the early 1970s.

By 1978 enough antidotal information was available to recognize the existence of a small breeding population in the Black Hills and for mountain lions to be classified as a State Threatened Species.

In addition to protection as a State Threatened Species under South Dakota's Endangered and Threatened Species Law, mountain lions were also protected under SDCL 41-8-2-1, which prohibited hunting of black bears, mountain lions, and wolves. This particular protection was removed in 1999 when SDCL 41-8-2-1 was repealed by the South Dakota State Legislature.

 In 2003 mountain lions were removed from the State's threatened species list and reclassified as a big game animal (SDCL 41-1-1-4).

 In 2005, South Dakota implemented an "experimental" mountain lion hunting season. SDGF&P "justified" this action in their 2003 Mountain Lion Management Plan for the following reasons:

• Hunting "would communicate to some people that mountain lions are being managed responsibly."
• "Hunting provides a considerable amount of high quality recreation."
• Hunting provides the Department with a "proactive" vs. "reactive" means of dealing with problem lions (despite the fact that at the time South Dakota didn't seem to have many problem lions.) thus reducing the potential for lions receiving "bad publicity."
• Hunting would provide the opportunity to continue the State's ongoing "mortality-based" lion research.
• Hunting would help fund mountain lion management activities.
• Hunting "is just another step in the evolution of responsible mountain lion management in South Dakota."

Since their reclassification as a Big Game Animal in 2003, the only protection mountain lions in South Dakota have comes from the regulated hunting statutes, and those "protections" are limited to only when and how many will be killed in any given year.

Human-Caused Mountain Lion Mortalities in South Dakota
Since the arrival of the first settlers, there were reports of mountain lions throughout South Dakota with the Black Hills region noted for where the animals were considered to be quite numerous. In 1889 the perceived mountain lion threat to livestock operations was considered so serious that a bounty was placed by the legislature on every mountain lion reported killed.

Seventeen years later, this perception proved to be a myth when mountain lions were basically eradicated from the state. Despite the bounty remaining in effect until 1966 only two mountain lion mortalities were reported (1931 & 1959) during a 54-year period from 1906 to 1959.

Between 1998 and 2009 there were 312 mountain lion mortalities reported. Of all those killed during this 12-year period, twenty-six percent were a direct result of recreational sport hunting during South Dakota's four mountain lion hunting seasons (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009). A mortality breakdown is shown below:

MOUNTAIN LION MORTALITIES IN SOUTH DAKOTA 1998 - 2009
Hunting	80
Removal	72
Vehicular Trauma	52
Unknown Causes	33
Intra-Species Strife	31
Sick or Emaciated Lions	21
Interactions or Infanticide, Incidental Snaring/Trapping	16
Illegal Killings	7
TOTAL	312

Of the 279 mortality events attributed to a specific cause, 52 (19 percent), were considered as natural mortality events with the remaining 227 (81 percent) events considered human-induced or human-related causes of mortality. Natural mortality was due primarily to intra-species strife or emaciation.

South Dakota's 2010 Mountain Lion Hunting Season lasted only 41 days with the season's harvest quota of 40 lions (24 females - 16 males) being reached on February 10, 2010.

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