The Cats Meow

Want to shoot a mountain lion? I know where you can go. Unlimited walk-in tags, reasonable cost and a success rate near 100 percent if you can be there when the snow's on the ground. If that sounds too good to be true, let me tell you about it.

Last December I joined Kurt Lewis (Blue Mountain Hunts, 435/587-2113) in Utah's San Juan County for an opening-weekend lion pursuit with two local lion-dog trainers. San Juan is the state's largest county, filling all of Utah southeast of the Colorado River to the Four Corners where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet. It offers some of the most widely varied terrain in North America: ponderosa-forested mountains topping more than 11,000, labyrinth canyon networks, high desert plateaus and pinyon-juniper mesas.

Within its boundaries are such world-renowned natural features as Canyonlands National Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Rainbow Bridge National Monument, Monument Valley and the Dark Canyon Wilderness--plus some of the best public land big game hunting left in the Lower 48. All within just one county.

San Juan's current cougar population is estimated at about 200 to 250 cats, which feed almost exclusively on the county's abundant mule deer herd. In such a prey-rich area, an adult lion on average will kill a deer every third day, returning to a kill (or bedding nearby) to feed on the second day and beginning to seek a fresh quarry during the third day.

For San Juan County, this translates into approximately 25,000 cougar-killed mule deer per year, which would put a serious dent in the deer population if lion numbers were not controlled. The cougar harvest objective (see accompanying sidebar) for San Juan County for the 2001-02 season was 25 cats.

Lewis called me on December 12 to say there was already good snow on the ground at hunting elevations, and weather patterns almost guaranteed another snowfall the day before season or on opening day itself. That was a big deal because killing a lion without snow cover is mainly an accident. A relatively fresh, ground-covering snowfall helps hunters distinguish fresh tracks and allows houndsmen to release the dogs on the hottest sign. Otherwise, you blindly cover large areas of bare ground with the dogs in hopes of striking scent or find a fresh deer kill and set up an ambush to wait for the cat's return. Both are low-percentage approaches.

So the rule is: Go when there's snow. If you can maintain a flexible schedule and hunt when there's fresh snow on the ground, you'll likely bag your lion. If you have to lock into a date well in advance, all you can do is pray for snow on those particular dates. Most lion outfitters and guides prefer to play it by the weather; they're no more interested in wasting their time and their hounds' energy on dry trails than you are.

You can hunt San Juan lions in several ways. On the one extreme, you can ride in on horses and pack a camp into the remote Beef Basin region west of the Abajo Mountains. Or you can sleep in a motel in the county seat of Monticello and eat at restaurants. On this hunt I opted for convenience. Each morning, Kurt and I rendezvoused before daylight with the dog owners and local guide crew to organize the day's approach.