Overview
- Officers found the female shot through the chest and left in bushes near the group campsites at Gunnison City Mountain Park in Taylor Canyon.
- CPW says the carcass was discovered three days before the legal mountain lion season, and notes that any self-defense killing should have been reported immediately.
- The animal had been part of CPW’s Gunnison Basin density study used to estimate populations and set hunting rules.
- Anyone with information is asked to contact District Wildlife Manager Codi Prior or the CPW Gunnison office, or submit an anonymous tip through Operation Game Thief.
- CPW describes poaching as harmful to wildlife and the public, and a Boone and Crockett Club study estimates fewer than 4% of poaching incidents are detected with annual costs near $1.4 billion.