With 'sustainable' bighorn herd in Catalinas, G&F says no more mtn lion killings [View all]

[Ptah]

Dennis Newman TucsonSentinel.com

With a population of more than 80 bighorn sheep back at home in the Santa Catalina Mountains, the Arizona Game and Fish Department is taking a more hands-off approach to how it manages the herd.

The biggest change, announced this week, is that the agency will no longer hunt and kill mountain lions which prey on the herd in the mountains just north of Tucson.

"It's up to the sheep now," said Mark Hart of Game and Fish. "We're moving into a more passive management phase."

Predator control was the most controversial part of the plan to reintroduce bighorn sheep to the Catalinas. Members of the public, and some environmental groups, believed it didn't make sense to kill mountain lions for doing what comes naturally to them — eating sheep.

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/120716_bighorns/with-sustainable-bighorn-herd-catalinas-gf-says-no-more-mtn-lion-killings/