Wildlife Callers

Got an updated story from AZGFD this morning via twitter, thought I would pass it on to all of you. Below is a snippet of the story, click on the link for the full scoop.

Wildlife management action taken to assist struggling bighorn sheep population

YUMA, Ariz.  – The Arizona Game and Fish Department on Tuesday afternoon lethally removed a mountain lion known to be preying heavily on bighorn sheep in the Kofa Mountains Complex Predation Management Area in southwestern Arizona.

The lion was taken in the Eagletail Mountains located about 90 miles northeast of Yuma.

The action was taken in a continuing effort to help restore the struggling Kofa bighorn sheep population, whose numbers declined more than 50 percent from an estimated 815 in 2000 to a low of 391 in 2006. The most recent survey in 2008 indicated an estimated population of 436.

The mountain lion was killed in accordance with the department’s May 2007 “Kofa Mountains Complex Predation Management Plan,” which is in place to monitor and limit predation during recovery efforts of this historic and critically important bighorn sheep population. The plan stipulates that an offending mountain lion—defined as one that kills more than one bighorn sheep within a six-month period—may be lethally removed when bighorn sheep population levels are below a certain threshold.

The lion, a male fitted with a telemetry collar, was known to have killed 15 bighorn sheep, 11 within the predation management area, since being collared in late February.

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