FORT COLLINS – The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission has approved an experiment to see if killing mountain lions and bears will boost the state’s declining mule deer population.
The plan approved Wednesday will test whether removing some lions and bears, which prey on deer, will result in higher deer survival rates.
Up to 10 lions and 25 black bears would be killed each year for three years in one area near Rifle. Lions would be killed at different rates over nine years in another area near Salida. Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Lauren Truitt couldn’t immediately say how many.
Truitt says licensed or contracted hunters will be used.
The Denver Post reported some biologists and wildlife advocates call the plan ineffective and inhumane. They say human development is the main problem for deer, not predators.
