"At the same time these lions of yours are eating all the deer...
So, here are a couple things to ponder. First mountain lions love to eat mustang foals. So much so that they will suppress a population of horses if there are enough lions.
The sixty four dollar question then has to be: If lions are the primary limiting factor why are the deer the only ones not doing well in this range since there are so many alternative prey species? An established population of deer should have no problem coexisting with lions if they are the secondary or even tertiary prey species. Correct?
Maybe deer really do taste like cookies. "
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Why do you say "these lions of yours" ??? I have no vested financial interest in lions
I was sharing with you actual NDOW figures for lion taken in WA county.
Yes, lions love mustang foals and even adults if they can kill them. But horses are large animals. Are you aware of any areas where lions have actually suppressed horse herds? I am not aware of any areas.
Do you have any population estimates of lions in the Calicos? Or lion hunters that regularly hunt it? Maybe they are not currently there in any numbers?
Predators evolved with different capabilities for capturing different prey. Lions for deer, wolves for moose and elk, coyotes for fawns, mice and rabbits.
Antelope do not seem to as "killable" for a lion as a deer. Antelope favor more open country. 015 has lot of antelope and a lot of lions. But very few deer compared to the past. Around August 1998 I saw eleven nice velvet bucks while hunting there, not the case anymore. Deer spend a lot of time in heavier brush, making them more stalkable and killable by a lion. The same as for human hunters, we look for bucks that are stalkable. Antelope in the middle of a 5 mile flat are pretty hard to stalk and they run pretty fast also
I am a predator and I can run down a badger or a porqupine but I can not run down a jackrabbit. I think sheep are better at evading lions also due to their preference for cliffs and rocky country. But yes, they do need to water and do travel between prime habitat areas making them vulnerable. At water especially. Lions hunt waterholes hard.
From the research I have read, lions can especially be a limiting factor for deer in more marginal areas of deer habitat. 10 lions in a mountain range with only 200 deer will take a higher percentage of that deer poplulation than 10 lions living in a prime mountain range with 1,000 deer. I do believe lions will key in on deer as a primary prey species and take other animals as opportunity (or hunger) presents itself. There is cumulative effect of predation. Coyotes get so many deer and lions are an additive mortality in an area where they did not exist in any great numbers. (refer to NDOW data from Washoe Co). They make for additive deer mortality on the population on top of the coyotes. Talk to some government trappers that worked the country in the 1960's and forward. Their observations back up the lion take figures I posted above. Just facts to consider.
Elko county would be an area of much better, prime deer habitat where lion mortality on deer would not impact the population as much.
I think in "general" you can say the following about Nevada:
Why are elk faring better than deer?
Why are antelope faring better than deer?
Why are feral horses faring better than deer?
If it was all about habitat and rain and snow, why is the habitat producing enough feed for the above animals to continue to expand their populations and the deer appear to be struggling more?
A complicated issue with different answers for each deer herd.
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Measure wealth by the things you have,, for which you would not take money.