Mountain lion hunters have taken 22 lions so far this season. This year’s quota is 75 lions or 50 females. Wildlife officials say most of the lions are being harvested in the northern Black Hills.
Kevin Robling is a Big Game Biologist for the state. He says the lions appear to be in good condition and hunters are taking advantage of recent snowfall.
“It seems like once we do get good snow conditions the hunters really put in a lot of effort. Cutting fresh tracks is important and they seem to be finding a few. It’s been a pretty typical season so far and we expect it to continue at this pace. We’ll see how it all shakes out in the end. We have two months left, it ends on March 31st, so quite a long season left,” says Robling.
Robling says last year hunters had killed about 10 more lions at this point than this year. The South Dakota Game Fish & Parks Department has sold more than 3000 mountain lion licenses.
