On Friday, January 24, the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners voted to deny a petition that sought to change trapping regulations to protect mountain lions from injury and death. The petition–supported by the Nevada Wildlife Alliance, WildEarth Guardians, and the Mountain Lion Foundation–included eight recommended changes to Nevada’s trapping regulations based on the best available science, professional trapper advice, and public polling. Eight commissioners, representing hunting and agriculture interests, voted against the petition.Furthermore, the Commission failed to meaningfully consider a single recommendation offered in the petition.
The petition recommended shortening the trap check window to 24 hours in accordance with recommendations from the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians. The window is currently 96 hours, which is the longest in the continental American West. Other recommendations included limiting trap sizes, requiring trap-chain swivels, prohibiting drags (attaching traps to rocks, logs, or other moveable objects), and requiring trapper education.
Mountain lions are a “non-target” species in Nevada but still frequently fall victim to traps. Lions are injured, maimed, and even killed because of Nevada’s lax trapping laws. According to Nevada state data from just 9 years (2002-2004, 2007, 2010-2015), at least 278 mountain lions were caught in traps that were set for other animals. 11 of those lions were injured and 24 died. Only 19% of trappers report their non-target catch, so it’s likely that the number of mountain lions killed or injured by traps is higher.
Mountain lions are Nevada’s only extant apex carnivore, and studies show that species like lions have substantial and measurable benefits for ecosystems including river-corridor health, increased biodiversity, disease control, and even carbon sequestration.
In the big picture of wildlife stewardship, the changes that we and our partners brought to the Commission were modest and common-sense; they could have been implemented easily to help bring Nevada more in line with other Western states. Although we’re deeply disappointed in the Commission, the Mountain Lion Foundation and our partners are undeterred. We will continue to fight for Nevada’s native cats especially as they face opposition by the people supposed to be protecting them.
Feature image of Oregon mountain lion, photo credit: David Willingham
By: Erika Mathews, Director of Development, Mountain Lion Foundation
The Mountain Lion Foundation is grateful for the support of our dedicated donors. Because of you, we have had one of our best fundraising years in history, with a 38% increase in donations over last year!
We worked hard last year. You have already read about our successes and challenges, and we are more determined than ever to fulfill our mission: To ensure that mountain lions survive and flourish in the wild. The threats to their very existence are many.
With your help, we will continue to work in the field, in the courts, in state and town meetings, and in communities where mountain lions share our space. We will continue to stand up to powerful political interests and join hands with the community, who are our future. We will continue to strive to save this extraordinary animal. Not just for posterity, but for THEM. They have a right to exist and live their natural lives as part of our world, keeping it wholesome and in balance. But they cannot do it alone, and neither can we.
THANK YOU! The Mountain Lion Foundation succeeds because people like you cherish our beautiful big cats and recognize the importance of standing up to preserve our natural world and protect the creatures that call it home. Whatever we call her — puma, cougar, catamount, panther, or spirit of the mountains — she’s a magnificent and inspiring cat, and we must continue to protect her.
By: R. Brent Lyles, Executive Director, Mountain Lion Foundation
Few efforts have galvanized a statewide coalition of wildlife advocates more than Prop 127 did in Colorado last year. The ballot initiative, which sought to protect mountain lions, bobcats and lynx from trophy hunting and trapping in that state, brought together many dozens of organizations and hundreds of volunteers, united under the banner of Cats Aren’t Trophies, or CATs.
While Prop 127 missed its 51% target in November’s election by just six points, the many coalition volunteers and partners of the CATs campaign are continuing to fight for the protection of Colorado’s wild cats in 2025. This work is moving forward on several fronts.
First, some of the key players in the CATs campaign have joined together to launch the Colorado Wildlife Alliance. This new not-for-profit organization is focused on a core disconnect in wildlife management, namely that “Colorado’s wild animals are managed specifically for special interest groups, not for their own health or ecosystem benefits.” By creating a diverse and inclusive coalition of people across the state, this organization is working to build support for and ultimately effect change in how Colorado’s state agencies can act as stewards to the ecosystems of Colorado and the many plants and animals that inhabit them.
Another group of partners from the CATs campaign is focused on ending the sale of Colorado’s animal pelts to domestic and foreign markets (including black markets). A key goal of the CATs campaign and Prop 127 was to stop the widespread trapping of bobcats for their beautiful coats, and there is still very strong support for ending this cruel practice across the state. By cracking down on the sale of fur in Colorado, bobcats will gain meaningful and long-lasting protections.
Finally, many myths and misconceptions persist about Colorado’s mountain lions, despite a robust communications campaign as part of Prop 127. To address these harmful misunderstandings, a passionate group of leaders from the CATs campaign are rolling out plans for a statewide corps of volunteers who will make presentations at local college campuses and other venues, focused on mountain lions and their many benefits to Colorado’s healthy ecosystems. The group’s goal is to do at least 50 presentations in the next year.
And there’s more: A symposium on mountain lion science, a media campaign, and special events are all in the early planning stages. The Mountain Lion Foundation will continue to be a partner in these efforts and play an important role in Colorado’s advocacy moving forward, focused on education, regulatory protections, and peaceful coexistence. To learn more and to get involved, click on the links above to sign up for the mailing lists, and as always, keep an eye on your emails from the Mountain Lion Foundation for opportunities to volunteer and take action for Colorado’s majestic mountain lions!
Update: As we anticipated last November, the results of the recent elections are already shaping up with dramatic results for mountain lions and conservation. As we feared, the Wyoming’s legislature’s ultra-conservative majority is moving legislation that would remove most limits on mountain lion hunting. Nevada’s wildlife commission, perhaps emboldened by partisan gridlock between the governor and legislature, rejected a modest petition to align trapping standards with other states and prevent needless deaths and mangling of unintentionally trapped mountain lions.
On a federal level, the first weeks of the new presidential administration have been chaotic. A freeze on federal payments, despite court orders directing mandated spending to proceed, has harmed all federally funded research. Not only have salaries for postdocs and grants been cut off without notice, but review panels at the NSF and NIH have been halted, delaying and preventing new research, and making it impossible for professors to recruit grad students and plan field seasons. The full scope of those payment freezes are still unclear, with some reporting suggesting that routine payments to state wildlife agencies under laws like Pittman-Robertson may have been delayed, along with payments covering wildlife crossings, parks, and other state and local services that are funded with federal payments.
President Trump and Elon Musk have also pushed federal employees to leave government service, with results that are still uncertain. Trump’s Project 2025 plan called for terminating all federal endangered species specialists and significantly scaling back other federal biologists at agencies including the Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Park Service. If those staff accept the retirement offers emailed to all federal employees, the loss of knowledge could have devastating results for conservation in general, and especially for federally endangered Florida panthers.
We will continue monitoring state legislatures, including Wyoming, Montana, and other states where wildlife laws are being weakened. We will also continue telling members about opportunities to improve wildlife management through legislatures and state agencies. Be sure to sign up on our email lists with your current address to get information from your home state, and to be sure your messages go to your districts elected officials.
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Last week’s election was predicted to be, and will likely prove, among the most consequential in US history. Beyond the presidential election, voters made choices about control of Congress, eleven states chose governors, state legislatures changed hands, and voters considered ballot initiatives that set state and local policies on matters like climate change, housing development and habitat protection, and — of course – mountain lion hunting.
Colorado’s Proposition 127 was a historic effort to extend the protections mountain lions have enjoyed in California since that state’s proposition 117 (and an earlier legislative moratorium signed by then-Governor Ronald Reagan). Hunters, the gun industry, and ultimately a range of politically conservative political action committees invested heavily in opposing that initiative, while Cat’s Aren’t Trophies, the Mountain Lion Foundation, our members and our many dedicated allies worked tirelessly to support it. In the end, voters declined to end trophy hunting for wild cats in Colorado, with 55% voting against the initiative.
In Florida, voters approved a constitutional amendment that enshrines a right to hunt in the state constitution, with 67% voting in favor, well above the required 60% threshold. 23 other states have adopted an amendment of this sort, though the precise details vary. Utah’s Right to Hunt Amendment is the central basis for the lawsuit by the Mountain Lion Foundation and our partners challenging the state’s elimination of hunting limits on mountain lions. These amendments have also been used by wolf advocates in other states to challenge excessive hunting. Florida’s amendment requires, among other things, that “fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife” should be the “preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife.”
Other ballot measures in the states expanded and protected environmental policy. Washington voters shrugged off a referendum that would have eliminated the state’s carbon tax trading program, which aims to reduce climate pollution by 95% by 2050. In California, voters approved $10 billion in bonds to fund parks, environmental protections, clean energy programs, and water infrastructure. Unfortunately, voters in South Dakota declined to adopt limits on carbon dioxide pipelines, allowing the associated climate pollution to continue.
Voters in Washington state maintained strong pro-wildlife leadership. Outgoing Governor Jay Inslee’s appointees to the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission have been instrumental in changing that body and making the state a leader in wildlife governance reform. He opted not to run for re-election, and the state’s Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, will replace him. Ferguson has been a vigorous defender of wildlife and the environment, and we are hopeful that he will continue the state’s progress on wildlife policy. Several state legislators who had been leaders on wildlife policy have left the legislature, and we will work to see strong leadership of key committees, and to educate them about issues affecting cougars. Washington also elected a new Commissioner of Public Lands to administer the state’s forests and waters. The winner, Dave Upthegrove, has been a champion for managing the Evergreen State’s forests for the benefit of wilderness not just timber companies.
Races for state office in other states produced little change. Utah’s Governor Cox was re-elected even after signing a law opposed by wildlife groups and hunters, which eliminated limits on mountain lion hunting. Montana’s Greg Gianforte was re-elected despite media reports of his having illegally killed a collared wolf, and his proud display of a cougar he killed with a legal license.
In Nevada, hopes for a legislative majority large enough to overcome the state’s Republican governor appeared to fall short by a single seat. Efforts to address wildlife killing contests and needless deaths and maiming of cougars in traps set for other species have been caught in the Silver State’s partisan crossfire. Wyoming voters installed an ultra-conservative governing majority in the state’s House, making it less likely that wildlife advocates will be able to address loopholes that left no way to prosecute a hunter who ran over a wolf with a snowmobile, dragged it to a bar where he tortured it before finally killing it.
Local voters across the country voted to fund public transit. Roads create critical risks to mountain lions, both from loss of connectivity between habitat patches and from direct mortality from car strikes. Increasing public transit rather than road construction is a key element of mountain lion conservation, and these moves away from cars will benefit not just mountain lion survival in areas like Maricopa County, AZ, or Denver, CO, but maintain the paths that mountain lions will one day use to return to areas like Richland County, SC or Nashville, TN.
The presidential election is also likely to have significant effects on wildlife policy, though most direct management of mountain lions falls to state policymakers. President-elect Trump has proposed substantial revisions or outright repeal of the Endangered Species Act, which protects the few remaining Florida panthers. In addition, the conservative agenda Project 2025 proposes eliminating federal scientists who specialize in endangered species and their recovery, which could affect the survival of those last eastern panthers. And it proposes undoing the Antiquities Act, which protects wildlife and cultural resources in National Monuments. In his first term, Trump dismantled key climate provisions, including international treaties and federal offices that support energy efficiency and climate resilience. Some of those changes may require action by Congress, and partisan control of the US House remains unclear, though it is sure to be closely divided. Other changes may lead to litigation in the courts, and judicial appointments may flow more easily through the Senate under its new Republican leadership and under recent precedents that make it easier to overturn strong environmental regulations.
Undoubtedly, this election created setbacks for mountain lions and environmental policy. The Mountain Lion Foundation and our partners remain steadfast in our commitment to our work, which is now even more critical. Regardless of the political winds, Americans need resilient communities that can live comfortably and safely near wildlife. We will continue to fight for the mountain lions that make our wild lands unique and vibrant.
Hunters have long used teams of dogs to chase mountain lions. One well known description comes from former president Theodore Roosevelt:
With a very little training, hounds readily and eagerly pursue the cougar, showing in this kind of chase none of the fear and disgust they are so prone to exhibit when put on the trail of the certainly no more dangerous wolf. The cougar, when the hounds are on its track, at first runs, but when hard-pressed takes to a tree, or possibly comes to bay in thick cover.(Roosevelt, 1922)
Today, dogs are still used for mountain lion hunting, and also for research. Now, more and more people are asking whether dogs could be used to mitigate human-mountain lion conflicts in the form of hazing.
Generally speaking, “hazing” refers to practices that are meant to teach animals to stay away. While hazing can be accomplished through various means, some states have already incorporated hazing with dogs as part of their policy. California, for instance, allows for “aggressive hazing that does NOT injure or kill the mountain lion. The use of less than lethal ammunition (beanbags, rubber bullets, cracker shells, rock-salt, paintballs), noise making devices, pursuit with ATV, and/or pursuit with dogs” (State of California, 2022).
The practice of using dogs to haze mountain lions sparks broad debates surrounding effectiveness and ethics. Some believe it could stop livestock depredations, keep people safer, and save the lives of mountain lions that would have otherwise been killed due to conflict. Some claim that mountain lions no longer fear humans, and hazing could instill that fear. On the opposite side, some see hazing as a cruel practice that needlessly endangers wildlife and working dogs, while not doing anything to help conflict. There has been a glaring lack of research on the topic, but recent publications may help to offer some insight.
What does the research say about hazing with dogs?
In 2024, two studies were published regarding how chasing mountain lions with dogs impacts the lions’ behavior. The first study was conducted by Winter et al. (2024) in California. The team captured and collared mountain lions by chasing them with dogs or setting box traps in the area. 34 mountain lions were captured using dogs, and the other 42 were captured using traps. They measured how far the mountain lions fled from where they were captured, and if they returned to the location. Both the lions captured with dogs or in box traps fled similar distances, and neither group avoided where they were captured. They concluded that pursuit with dogs did not deter mountain lions from a specific area.
A collared mountain lion is released for research purposes. Photo credit: California Department of Fish & Wildlife
A separate study was conducted by Parsons et al. (2024) in collaboration with the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. This work was conducted in Washington State and aimed to determine if hazing mountain lions with dogs could increase mountain lions’ sensitivity to approaching humans. The researchers, who included the well-known houndsman Bart George, accomplished this by approaching GPS-collared mountain lions while playing podcasts aloud. They measured how close they could get to the mountain lion before it ran away, and how far it ran. The 12 mountain lions in the control group were only approached in this way. The 39 mountain lions in the treatment group were approached and then chased by dogs. Both groups were approached in four separate trials.
After having been hazed, mountain lions began to flee from the approaching researchers sooner. They also ran farther away than before. The control groups that weren’t chased with dogs allowed the researchers to get closer and fled a shorter distance over the course of the four trials. The researchers concluded that hazing with dogs could increase mountain lion avoidance of approaching humans, and that exposure to approaching humans with no hazing could make lions more tolerant of human approach.
Both of these studies face limitations. Winter et al. (2024) didn’t follow traditional hazing protocol and instead relied on the hazing effects of capture. Parsons et al. (2024) sampled primarily male mountain lions, which may bias the results to reflect male mountain lion behavior more so than female. Neither study tested whether or not hazing could reduce any type of conflict with mountain lions. It’s unclear whether they offer any practical lessons for human safety.
What doesn’t the research say?
Hazing mountain lions with dogs is a tool we have more questions about than we do answers. Dogs don’t appear to deter mountain lions from returning to a location after one interaction. And hazing with dogs might increase mountain lion’s avoidance of the As of now, no published research has studied if hazing could be used to mitigate mountain lion conflict with livestock or people. Also, research is still needed on whether hazing with hounds has short- or long-term impacts on the individual lions’ well-being.
The research also doesn’t address whether the effects of hazing last for very long—whatever those effects may be. As of now, the methods needed to haze mountain lions with dogs, what goals it could accomplish, and how long the effects will last are unknown.
Do mountain lions need more fear?
Some believe that mountain lions have lost their fear of humans, and that hazing is needed to instill it once again. But is there any reason to believe mountain lions have lost that fear?
For many years mountain lion populations were persecuted as vermin, resulting in their local extinction in much of the United States. New protections in the mid 20th century helped populations recover in many areas. Today, there are many claims that there are more mountain lions than there used to be before, and in many locations across the American West, that is true. However, this conservation success does not mean that lions are overpopulated — far from it.
With more mountain lions, an expanding wildland-urban interface, social media, and ubiquitous outdoor cameras, we are able to see lions more than ever before. This increased exposure has led many to believe that mountain lions no longer fear people, and that hunting or hazing is needed to teach them more fear. But mountain lions avoid and hide from people every day. They become more nocturnal, change where they live, and reduce their activity to avoid people (Bolas, et al., 2024 and Riley, et al., 2024). Current evidence suggests that mountain lions still have a strong avoidance of humans, with or without hazing.
Conclusion
Hazing may have the potential to help protect or harm mountain lions. If hazing does have a place in mitigating human conflict with lions, it could offer an alternative to killing the lion involved in the conflict. However, if the method is ineffective at reducing conflict, it may just offer a pathway for individuals to harass mountain lions. Furthermore, we don’t fully understand the potential damage that hazing could cause to mountain lions. There is also a question regarding how safe it is to deploy dog teams to chase mountain lions in areas with human-mountain lion conflicts — most of which occur near human homes.
Without more research, it is difficult to determine whether or not such a practice should have a place in mountain lion coexistence strategies. Fortunately, there are many other nonlethal tools to address coexistence with large carnivores. Current evidence supports the use of nonlethal methods to coexist with large carnivores as the most effective and sustainable approach (Lorand, et al., 2022). Here at the Mountain Lion Foundation, we will continue to support nonlethal coexistence strategies that protect both lions and the people living with them.
References
Bolas, E. C, Pingatore, A.D, Mathur, M, Blumstein, D. T, Sikich, J. A, Smith, J. A., Benson, J. F, Riley, S. P.D, & Rachel V. Blakey, R. V. (2024) Human recreation influences activity of a large carnivore in an urban landscape, Biological Conservation, Volume 301,10812. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320724003744?via%3Dihub
Lorand, C., Robert, A., Gastineau, A., Mihoub, J. B., & Bessa-Gomes, C. (2022). Effectiveness of interventions for managing human-large carnivore conflicts worldwide: Scare them off, don’t remove them. The Science of the total environment, 838(Pt 2), 156195. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156195
Report to the Fish and Game Commission regarding findings of necropsies on mountain lions taken under depredation permits in 2021. (2024) State of California Natural Resource Agency: Department of Fish and Wildlife. Prepared. Wildlife Health Laboratory. Retrieved from: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=198919&inline
Riley, S. P. D., Sikich, J. A., & Benson, J. F. (2021). Big cats in the big city: Spatial ecology of mountain lions in Greater Los Angeles. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 85(8), 1527–1542. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27088093
Roosevelt, T. (1922) The Wilderness Hunter. [New York, London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/26014771/.
Winter, S. Y, Van Vuren, D. H, Vickers, T. W, & Dellinger, J. A. (2024). Response of mountain lions to hazing: Does exposure to dogs result in displacement? Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference, 31. Retrieved from: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hm0k87f
Feature image by Coexistence Ambassador Sean Hoover
The Mountain Lion Foundation’s Coexistence Ambassadors are a group of trained volunteers in 11 states working as community advocates for coexistence with wildlife. We train a cohort of Ambassadors each summer on a working sheep ranch in mountain lion country to give them a strong foundation in practical skills. These competencies include talking to the public about mountain lions and their value to ecosystems, understanding depredations and how to identify the responsible carnivore, crisis response, productively working with community leaders, and how to use the tools of deterrence and exclusion.
The training includes hands-on exercises with electric fences, Foxlights, Gadflys, and working animals like Livestock Guardian Dogs. We also teach about the ecological importance of mountain lions and the legal frameworks of how they are (and aren’t) protected in various states.
Talking about deterrents at Coexistence Camp 2023. Photo credit: Sean Hoover
Our Ambassadors go on to form a supportive network unlike any other. After training camp, they participate in continuing education and community support through monthly zoom meetings. Both Mountain Lion Foundation staff and Ambassadors themselves, many of whom work in the field of conservation, host these educational sessions. When volunteers are needed, the Ambassadors can be mobilized for everything from tabling at community events to helping install deterrent devices for both community safety and data gathering.
2024 was a challenging year for our Ambassadors, and we are so proud of everything they accomplished.
In Colorado, our Ambassadors fought hard to protect wild cats from trophy hunting, and strung barbed wire with staff to help a ranch recover from wildfire and become more friendly to the local cougar population.
In Utah, they worked to protect lions whose few government restrictions on trapping and hunting were recently revoked.
In Texas, they advocated for wild native cats, including the vanished Jaguar.
In southern California, an Ambassador worked as a docent for the Wallace Annenberg crossing, and several Ambassadors served as trail docents and guides, educating the public about safe recreation in cougar country, even in one case directing skits for children that include a mother cougar and her cubs.
Getting to know each other at Coexistence Camp 2024. Photo Credit: Chasity Smith
One of our Ambassadors ran a marathon and used an illustration of a cougar that they made for their team jerseys!
Ambassadors wrote articles and letters, and one even staffed a table at an event to educate the public about cougars in Mississippi. One Ambassador, who is also a graduate student in ecology, submitted her final project on mountain lions, and is now writing curriculum for elementary students to understand both safety and the ecological importance of mountain lions. Another Ambassador has already volunteered to engage with receptive schools with which she’s built a relationship.
After the tragic loss of a young man to a mountain lion attack in El Dorado County in 2024, our Ambassador team stepped up to provide community education and support, and to volunteer to install deterrent devices.
When Avian Flu took the life of mountain lions in a sanctuary beloved by our Ambassador, she remained steadfast in her work advocating for this vulnerable and magnificent species.
Another Ambassador, who is an amazing wildlife photographer, learned that he had passed within 60 feet of a collared lion with his camera, without ever seeing the cat. Over and over, we confirm with our experiences that in most cases, wild mountain lions seek to avoid humans and coexist peacefully with us.
Coexistence Programs Manager, Gowan Batist, talking to Ambassadors about deterrents around a chicken coop at Coexistence Camp 2024. Photo credit: Chasity Smith
In 2025 we are beginning the year with wildfires in Southern California, where several of our team are located. The fires are displacing vast amounts of wildlife including mountain lions. A video of a mother lion and her cubs fleeing fire has been shared across the internet. In the wake of a displacement event like wildfire, more human/lion conflict is likely, and the Mountain Lion Foundation and our Coexistence Ambassadors will be there to support people with knowledge and tools so we can safely share this landscape.
Our next Coexistence Camp will be held near Seattle, Washington in the early summer, with both new and returning volunteers gathering to build community and receive in-depth training. If you would like to apply to join us, be on the lookout for information coming soon.
Thanks to the immense generosity of our donors, 2024 was a wonderful year to amplify support for mountain lions. The Mountain Lion Foundation is more motivated than ever to move this work forward in the new year. Here are our reasons for hope and causes for concern in 2025:
For as long as humans have lived in the Americas, they have lived alongside mountain lions. For much of that time, humanity’s goal has been to coexist as peacefully as possible, protecting humans and livestock and allowing mountain lions to exist peacefully where they live. Unfortunately, as recently as the early 20th century, mountain lions came to be viewed by many in the United States as vermin, and widespread extermination campaigns almost led to their extinction.
Today, Americans who live in mountain lion country and state wildlife agencies charged with law enforcement, better recognize the ecological importance of these irreplaceable animals. With the help of our supporters, we continue to support and encourage those efforts, and we fight for the rights of mountain lions to live lives that are free from needless and ruthless persecution. Coexistence makes life better for people, for the domesticated animals who depend on us, and for wildlife. It allows mountain lions to behave as they have evolved to behave.
We work in the field, in the courts, in state and town meetings, and in communities where mountain lions share our space. We stand up to powerful political interests and join hands with communities. We will continue to strive to save this extraordinary animal. Not just for posterity, but for THEM. They have a right to exist and live their natural lives as part of our world, keeping it wholesome and in balance. But they cannot do it alone, and neither can we.
Thank you for being our partner in this struggle for our planet, our children and grandchildren, and for the lions. Onward in 2025!
A livestock guardian dog walks his property in Grand County, Colorado. Photo credit: Brent Lyles
Register now for our December Living with Lions webinar:
Onward in 2025, for the Lions!
Wednesday, December 18 at 12pm PT via Zoom
The nature of our mission to save America’s lion often means that for every three steps forward, we stumble backwards a few paces. In 2024, we witnessed incredible milestones for cougar protections, but we also saw devastating set-backs. What is the state of mountain lion protection in 2024? What are our causes for concern and what are our reasons to hope in 2025?
Join Executive Director, R. Brent Lyles, as he reflects on the work of the Mountain Lion Foundation this year and shares his vision for our work going forward to ensure that mountain lions survive and thrive in the wild.
R. Brent Lyles is Executive Director of the Mountain Lion Foundation. Brent began his professional journey teaching middle-school science in rural North Carolina. Since that time, Brent’s career has focused on science education, compassionate and inclusive leadership, and environmental stewardship.
He holds master’s degrees in biological anthropology and not-for-profit management. Before joining the team at the Mountain Lion Foundation in 2022, Brent served as executive director at several not-for-profit organizations in Austin, Texas, and the San Juan Islands, Washington. Other experiences include playing in mediocre rock bands, management consulting, writing national science textbooks, and, as a young person, dreaming about someday seeing a mountain lion in the wild.
PumaGuard uses AI to accurately detect mountain lions on trail cameras and triggers sensory deterrents to keep them away from livestock. | Graphic courtesy of Aditya Viswanathan
Human development and increasingly frequent and intense wildfires have disrupted wildlife habitats in western and southwestern states like New Mexico. When habitat becomes fragmented, there can be more conflicts between people, livestock, and displaced carnivores like mountain lions. Studies suggest that the sound of human voices, especially when combined with other sensory experiences like flashing lights and sporadic loud noises, are an especially effective method for keeping mountain lions away from livestock. “Stacking” deterrent methods on top of human voices has proven so effective that some sheep and goat ranchers keep a transistor radio tuned to talk radio near their flocks. The sound of humans acts as a first line of defense; if that first deterrent fails to keep a lion at a distance, then flashing motion lights, loud sonic devices, and/or livestock guardian dogs inside an electrified fence will likely do the trick. Stacking deterrent methods, as opposed to using just one that may not deter every lion every time, has proven to be a very effective way to keep both livestock and lions safe.
What if ranchers could target their deterrent stacks so that they’re activated only when there really is a mountain lion around (as opposed to a neighbor walking by)? Light and sound deterrents are most often motion-activated. That means that they’re triggered indiscriminately by movement, which may or may not come from a mountain lion. Deterrent stacks are effective; they are also the broadest-stroke approach to keeping away elusive, usually solitary feline carnivores.
Aditya Viswanathan, a sophomore, and his team of seven fellow high schoolers are refining the art and science of mountain lion deterrence. Aditya and his teammates are members of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) Nature Youth Group in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Their invention, called PumaGuard, is a machine learning application that detects and identifies, with 99% accuracy, mountain lions on trail cameras. When a puma is detected on camera, PumaGuard automatically triggers multiple deterrent methods in the exact area of the cat. Aditya and his team are testing the effectiveness of their tool at stables in Los Alamos stables near the students’ homes and where livestock-lion conflicts have persisted for a decade.
Members of the PEEC Nature Youth Group with Aditya Viswanathan (center back) | Photo by Ryan Ramaker, Los Alamos Daily Post
Using the Xception architecture, the algorithm achieved 99% training accuracy, 91% validation accuracy, and successfully identified pumas at the site. Our method can be deployed on a Raspberry Pi and processes images from multiple trail cameras via a local WiFi network, which enables near real-time detection. Once pumas are detected, the platform can trigger multiple mitigation responses, such as lights or sounds. This economical, scalable solution is simple to implement and holds promise as a globally applicable method for reducing predator-livestock conflicts while promoting coexistence. – Aditya Viswanathan
PumaGuard has already garnered impressive awards for the social impact and sophistication of its deployment of machine learning. It was one of four projects to win an award in the high school track of NeurIPS, the world-renowned AI conference. Of the 330 projects submitted by high school teams around the world, PumaGuard was recognized for its creative approach to the competition’s theme of how machine learning can have a positive benefit on society.
Since winning the award, Aditya has represented his team at conservation and AI conferences across North America. In October, he was featured as a speaker at the International Wildlife Coexistence Conference. In December, he is traveling to Vancouver, Canada to present PumaGuard and receive the NeurIPS award for his team. We are lucky to have him as our January Living with Lions Webinar guest to talk about how he, his team, and his fellow young adults are creatively and proactively protecting wildlife for their generation and beyond.
Fun fact: Aditya’s dad is Hari Viswanathan, the physicist and camera trapper who was featured in our 2025 Annual Calendar and our April Living with Lions webinar called Mountain Lion Spying 101.
