Wow, a lot of mean spirited posts here. I have to say that I haven't seen anyone say that there are "millions" of cougars in Utah except for the ones that don't seem to accept the fact that cougars are part of the decline in deer numbers, just like coyotes, disease, winter mortality, bears, road kill,lack of winter range are. They all take their slice of the pie. The ones that are indiscriminate in their choice of what they kill play a much larger factor in the decline in deer numbers. Cougar, coyote, bear, highways, disease,and winter kill are equal opportunity killers when it comes to the gender factor. All of you know that herd growth is dependent upon does. For the most part human hunters,do not impact doe populations. Realistically, which ones of the mortality factors can we realistically minimize and have the quickest impact on being able to increase deer survival and positive growth ?
We can't control weather, we can fence deer away from highways(very slow,expensive, long term process), disease has to run its course,-- that leaves us with doing what we can to reduce the number of predators- cougar coyote, bear-- to get the quickest result in deer survival and herd number increase. I have report from Wildlife Services (Feds) that gives a detailed report on the elimination of coyotes in Utah. It covers the time period from July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. It breaks it down into specific areas and the number and method used to kill the coyotes. The total number killed was 1729. The DWR knows that reduction in predators will have the biggest and quickest impact on deer survival and most likely will result in increased deer populations. Thats the facts!A couple of RAC meetings ago when we were discussing cougar management and tag numbers, The Big Game Coordinator/Biologist stated that there is growing evidence that when Big Game herd numbers get down to a certain level (for whatever reason), predators are the major factor in stopping the rebound/growth of deer herds to otherwise habitat sustainable levels. In other words, predators are a major factor which do not allow the growth of deer numbers. The fact is-- cougars are a very efficient deer killing machine. The fact is also that if the predator numbers can be substantionally reduced from there current numbers, deer herd numbers will no doubt begin to increase.
It is pretty simple-- reduce the number of deer (does and fawns especially) that cougars kill and you will automatically put in place the real potential of increasing deer numbers. If there were more deer now, the number of cougars we have, wouldn't have near the impact it has on our piece of the pie.
If the staus quo stays the same, we will continue to see depressed deer herd numbers and it will be the human predator that will have to take less.
you know getting out if the cab once in a while will make your odds go up. 
