Killing mountain lions to save bighorn sheep

State quietly changes policy to manage wildlife

- BY LILA SEIDMAN

In a move that reverses nearly a decade of practice, California wildlife officials have quietly begun to allow killing mountain lions in order to protect another iconic native: bighorn sheep.

Though limited to the Eastern Sierra-the steep, rugged home of a rare type of the wild sheep-it marks a sea change for California, where legislators and voters have heaped protections on the big, charismatic cats that suffered decades of persecution.

It's a complex story a lesson in ecosystems that involves three linked species and efforts to do right by all of them.

While some people are thrilled, many are dismayed. Some think it's the wrong tack while others say it doesn't go far enough to safeguard yet another beloved animal: deer.

The policy change came into relief this year. In the craggy Sierra Nevada, a male lion was suspected of hunting down bighorn. Officials GPS-collared him, and he killed another sheep.

He was young enough that he hadn't started breeding or established a home range, so wildlife officials captured him and hauled him to what was supposed to be his new home.

But about six months later, he wandered back to sheep country and began killing again.

So early this summer they put him down by lethal injection, according to Tom Stephenson, who leads the Sierra Nevada bighorn [See Sierra, A8]

The moment lies at the intersection of politics and biology.

And it wouldn’t have happened without an important Eastern Sierra contingent: hunters.In February of last year, Brian Tillemans submitted a petition to the California Fish and Game Commission spotlighting concerns about dwindling numbers of Eastern Sierra mule deer, as well as bighorn sheep. The local hunter, who is also a former watershed resource manager for the L.A. Department of Water and Power, told commissioners the mountain lion population had “exploded” in the region. Hundreds of area residents signed the petition.