FWP removes lions from Wild Horse Island

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

This winter, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks killed three adult mountain lions from Wild Horse Island State Park in collaboration with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

FWP received reports of lion sightings from landowners and visitors and indicated the lions were habituated to people, the agency said in a release.

“The presence of multiple lions on the island, which spans 2,163 acres on the south end of Flathead Lake, created a public safety issue due to the high density and habituation,” FWP said.

FWP and CSKT were concerned about the impact to one of the nation’s most important conservation herds of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which have persisted disease-free on the island for nearly a century. Although Wild Horse Island provides high quality habitat that supports a sheep population that has produced some of the largest rams in the world, it has no escape terrain from mountain lions.

The lions most likely swam or crossed over the ice in the winter.

FWP spokesman Dillon Tabish said they could have “hop scotched” from nearby Cromwell Island over to Wild Horse.

There are no bridges to the island. But lions and bears have made it onto the island in the past. In addition to the coveted bighorns, the island is also home to mule deer, which, presumably, would have provided another food source to the lions.

It was the density and habituation to humans that concerned biologists, Tabish said. In addition to visitors, Wild Horse Island also has some private residences on its shoreline — more than 20 and Tabish said the lions were stashing kills under porches.

FWP biologists and a houndsman made a total of five trips to the island from January to February. The first three trips were successful hunts, the last two were to determine if any lions were left — they don’t believe there were, Tabish noted.

One lion was an adult female about 4 years old, the other an adult male 5 to 6 years old and a younger male, 3 to 4 years old, Tabish said.

FWP took DNA samples to try to determine where the lions came from and whether they were related.

The bighorn sheep population was introduced to the island in 1939 with the release of six bighorn sheep from the Sun River, and was later augmented with two rams from a separate herd in 1987. The island is a state park managed by FWP, which aims to keep the sheep population between 100 and 120.

In the last half century, more than 560 sheep have been moved from Wild Horse Island to establish new herds and augment existing populations across the U.S. Last year FWP moved 26 bighorn sheep from the island to the Tendoy Mountains in southwest Montana to help reestablish a herd in that area.

“Alongside prioritizing public safety, we felt it was important to protect one of the few disease-free bighorn sheep herds because of the role it plays in the greater conservation of the species across North America,” said Neil Anderson, FWP regional wildlife manager. “Due to the lack of escape terrain for bighorn sheep and the number of lions on the island, the bighorn population has been reduced to a number we haven’t seen in decades.”

“Mountain lion and other cats, like the bobcat, hold significant cultural importance to Tribal members, and are not hunted within the Flathead Indian Reservation,” said Kari Eneas, CSKT wildlife manager. “Our mountain lion populations are healthy and, in this unique situation, we considered the habituated behavior and density of animals of all wildlife species on the island in our cooperative decision with FWP.”

Montana is home to a healthy and robust population of mountain lions, FWP notes. The eco-region, which includes all of Northwest Montana outside of the reservation, has about 1,300 lions, a recent FWP study estimated. FWP has a long-standing policy against relocating a habituated mountain lion. Previous research shows lion relocations are largely unsuccessful in preventing the lion from returning, or it creates new territorial conflicts with other lions. Removing the lions from Wild Horse Island does not impact the overall population in northwest Montana, FWP said.