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Spilyqy Tymoo, Wqrm Springs, Oregon
Mnmtyb, 2005
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Neal Morningowl snow-boards down the hill by the
Community Center fields. Warm Springs saw its first
snow of the season just after Christmas.
Cougar: range
up to 98
square miles
(Continued from page 1)
Indeed, there are more than
enough mountain lions to con
sider them a tool for managing
wildlife, according to Doug
Calvin, wildlife conservation of
ficer for Warm Springs Fish and
Wildlife.
"Based on current literature
and research in Oregon, as a
comparison, we figure maybe in
the neighborhood of 30 to 40
lions here, based on the prey
base and habitat," Calvin said.
"But it could range anywhere
from 40 to 80 lions, but we
don't know because we haven't
done a whole lot of research on
them."
The last time tribal fish and
wildlife was able to perform re
search on mountain lions was in
the mid-1990s.
Between two female moun
tain lions studied back then,
Calvin said, they were shown to
have a roaming range of about
98 square miles.
"Females can range from
maybe 50 to 150 square mile as
home ranges," he said. "Males
usually do about twice that,
about 100 to 150 square miles.
They can cover a lot of ground."
Females, he said, can over
lap territories and will tolerate
each other, but males do not,
Calvin said.
"But males, the dominant
males especially, they typically
don't tolerate each other," he
said.
Younger males, he said, can
actually force an older male out
of his territory. That could have
been why, he said, the male cou
gar ended up in the vicinity of
U.S. 26 at 9 p.m.
"He looked like he was prob
ably an 8-, maybe 9-year-old
cat," Calvin said. "He had a few
battle scars, but he also looked
a little lighter, leaner, than I
would have expected him to be,
based on his size."
Typically a reclusive animal,
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1
mountain lions stay away from
human populations and devel
opments, but have apparently
become bolder with the decline
of their primary and favored
food source, deer. The shortage
has forced mountain lions to go
eat porcupines, skunks, or
horses.
National media have reported
that mountain lions have moved
eastward, having been sighted as
far east as Iowa, Illinois, and
Michigan. Luther said the cou
gars have been able to expand
farther east because of record
numbers of white tail deer east
of the Rocky Mountains.
"That makes for a lot of
prey base," Luther said.
The Mountain Lion Founda
tion, based in Sacramento, Ca
lif, claims cougars have killed
18 people in 66 attacks nation
wide in the last 100 years, but
half of both attacks and deaths
have occurred in the last 10
Most recently, a mountain
biker was killed, and another
injured, by a mountain lion in
Orange County, Calif, in Janu
ary 2004, and police in Palo Alto,
Calif, put down a cougar in a
residential neighborhood last
May.
A hunting season for the cou
gars was one of three options
tribal Fish and Wildlife presented
to Tribal Council. The others al
lowed tribal members to take
them only if the cougar is de
stroying livestock or domestic
animals, or poses a threat to hu
man life; or allowing tribal mem
bers to hunt cougars without
restriction or bag limit. Both
options included the proviso of
bringing the downed cougar to
Natural Resources for inspec
tion. The most positive thing about
the resolution, Smith said, is that
it gives ranchers like him and
his father, Buck Smith, the right
to defend their herd of about
350 horses by shooting the cou
gars. Jason Smith said he and his
father have witnessed cougars
killing colts. He believes as many
Fire destroys mobile
home before Christmas
Warm Springs Fire and
Safety responded to two mobile
home fires in a subdivision on
Oritz Loop in Warm Springs
Dec. 22.
Three fire trucks and nine
personnel responded to a fire at
residence of Vincent Simtustus
Jr., at 2372 Oritz Loop, at 6:54
a.m., that morning.
The mobile home was fully
involved, Dan Martinez, Fire
and Safety Chief, said, and it was
declared a total loss.
Martinez said that interviews
with relatives indicated the fire
was caused by a base heater in
a hallway.
One person, Julia Simtustus,
was treated for smoke inhala
tion. 'They're so elusive,
you can walk within
10 feet of one and
you 'd never know it. "
Jason Smith
as 100 colts may have been
killed by cougars, based on the
fact that when he and his father
have checked on their horses,
they have seen them in groups
of only adult horses, when year
lings and colts would be present.
"Lately, they've all been big
horses," he said. "There should
have been more yearlings and
spring colts. We think there are
no colts because the damned
cats are killing them because
they're easy. They don't kill
adults because they would have
to work at it."
Oddly enough, though, Smith
said he doesn't know of any
cattle killed bycpugars.
Smith said he knows of cou
gar sightings in six different
places on the reservation, in
cluding his family's ranch on the
southeast corner of the reser
vation, around Kah-Nee-Ta
High Desert Resort and Casino,
on Sunnyside Road, at the
Jefferson-Wasco county line,
and in the Tenino Valley, as well
as the one on U.S. 26. The one
on the highway might not have
been alone.
"I talked to the guy who hit
it, and he said there were two,"
Smith said. "One got away and
he hit the other one."
The mountain lion season is
much longer than tribal fish and
wildlife's bear hunting season,
conducted during the fall at the
same time deer and elk are in
season, because of mountain li
ons' elusive nature.
"They're a lot more difficult
to locate and, unless you have a
good set of hounds, the odds
of just stumbling into one when
you're out hunting deer or elk
e:
A family pet, a cat, was lost
in the fire.
The Simtustuses are staying
with relatives, Martinez said.
A neutral wire in a panel box
was found burning at the home
of John Marcum, at 2365 Oritz
Loop, at 1:33 p.m. that day.
The electricity was turned off
and a fire crew spent about two
hours at the residence in mak
ing sure no fires were hidden in
the walls.
Two adults and three children
were moved to a Madras hotel
until emergency housing could
be made available for them.
The Red Cross is working with
both the Marcums and
Simtustuses.
are pretty slim," Calvin said.
Smith said the winter might
be the easiest time to find a cou
gar, particularly if snow is on
the ground, because cougars
barely leave tracks on bare
ground.
"They're so elusive, you can
walk within 10 feet of one and
you'd never know it," Smith said.
"Now you've got a little weather
and you can take advantage."
Because of their elusive na
ture and the difficulty in hunt
ing them, though, it appears the
only way a cougar may reveal
itself is when it's forced to do
so.
"No matter how hard you try,
you're never going to come close
to denting the population be
cause they're so crafty," he said.
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