Hunter harvests lion that traveled from Canada

A female mountain lion that surprised biologists when she traveled some 450 miles from southeastern British Columbia to central Montana has been legally killed by a lion hunter in the Big Belt Mountains east of Helena, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The lion, called Sandy after being captured 10 months ago by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, was fitted with a GPS collar.

The distance of her cross-country trip surprised biologists in both countries who were tracking her movements with great interest. Although young males have been documented traveling hundreds of miles to stake out new territory, young female lions typically do not disperse so far to find home ranges.

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“It’s just a lion that happened to be harvested,” said Jay Kolbe, a wildlife biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, who called the harvest “completely legal.”

The winter mountain lion season had opened Dec. 1.

The lion was shot Dec. 11 in Confederated Gulch east of Canyon Ferry Reservoir on the Missouri River in the Big Belt Mountains 30 miles east of Helena.

The female harvest quota in the lion management unit where the lion was shot had not been met, Kolbe said.

Montana has 3,500 to 4,000 lions, and hunters take 400 to 500 annually. Hounds typically are used to hunt lions in the winter.

Adam Grove, a FWP wildlife biologist in Townsend, knew before the hunter reported the harvest that the lion from Canada was likely dead. That’s because Canadian wildlife authorities had already notified him that the cat’s GPS collar had sent out a mortality signal, which occurs when there is no movement for 12 hours.

Then the hunter called to report the harvest, and later presented the lion and the collar for inspection Dec. 14.

“I briefly told him this was the lion that was collared in Canada and traveled down here,” Grove said.

The hunter was not aware of the lion’s history, Grove said.

“It reaffirms the capacity of lions to disperse and remain genetically connected,” Kolbe said of the great distance the lion traveled. “We’ve seen this with other research projects.”

The cat’s movements demonstrate how lion populations are genetically connected across North America, Kolbe added.

While males travel longer distances to establish home ranges, females typically have home ranges closer to the home range of their mothers, Kolbe said.

The average dispersal for a female is more on the order of 25 to 40 miles if they disperse at all, Kolbe said.

“That’s part of what makes this case so interesting,” he said.

And because the lion was wearing a GPS collar, researchers were able to get detailed, daily information on the habitat through which the cat moved on its trip south.

Lions breed all 12 months of the year and typically have their first litter before 3, but it did not appear as if the lion had bred or lactated before it was shot, Kolbe said.

British Columbia wildlife authorities previously said the lion was about 2 years old and weighed about 90 pounds. Grove, the FWP wildlife biologist, said he saw the hide and skull but not the entire carcass, so he couldn’t say what kind of shape she was in at the time of her death.

In March 2015, the lion was fitted with a GPS collar after being captured near Sand Creek south of Cranbrook in British Columbia as part of a study of the habits of mountain lions in populated areas. Cranbrook is 65 miles north of the Montana-Canada border.

The lion, named Sandy after Sand Creek, crossed the United States-Canada border into Montana in June.

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She made her way across the mountainous Continental Divide and then continued south following the Rocky Mountain Front, where the plains meet the mountains. She stealthily moved undetected through ranches and farms, at one point moving as far east as Fairfield, which is on the plains 35 miles west of Great Falls. Biologists thought she was dead once because signals coming the collar showed she hadn’t moved for 12 hours. A Montana FWP biologist who checked the property couldn’t find the lion, and biologists assumed she just took a long nap and moved on.

The southern most extent of the lion’s movement was the Deep Creek Canyon near Highway 12 between Townsend in White Sulphur Springs in the Big Belt Mountains, Kolbe said. The lion eventually moved north again east of Canyon Ferry Reservoir, where she was shot. GPS coordinates indicated she appeared to have set up a home range in that area.

As the crow flies, the lion traveled about 300 miles, British Columbia wildlife officials said previously. Including the movements east and west during the journey south, the lion actually traveled about 450 miles.

A second female lion that was collared 80 miles north of Cranbrook near Invermere is now in the Yaak River drainage near Libby in northwestern Montana. Movements of that cat, which also has a GPS collar, also are being monitored.