BY KAREN BOSSICK
A mountain lion was killed in the Indian Creek area on Friday.
A spokesman for Idaho Fish and Game Department was unable to say whether it was the same cougar that killed a Labrador retriever near the Big Wood River in the Broadway Run area just south of St. Luke’s Wood River Hospital in mid-December.
Idaho Fish and Game officers did not pursue the cougar in that case because, they said, it looked as if the cat just happened on the dog in the middle of the night and had not specifically sought it out.
Residents of Elkhorn said they had seen a cougar in their neighborhood just prior to the killing of the dog.
The shooting of the cougar on Friday was legal under a policy known as culling the predators. But that policy is not uncontroversial.
Some say, for instance, that killing an adult male mountain lion may lead to more attacks on livestock because the older male may keep out more aggressive young lions. And one ecologist determined that more pups survive in litters where coyotes are culled so the practice doesn’t actually reduce the number of potential predators.
This was the second mountain lion killed this week in southern Idaho.
Wildlife officers with Southeast Regional Fish and Game office killed a mountain lion after it killed a family dog near Pocatello on Wednesday. The pet’s owner said she heard a commotion immediately after letting her dog outside at 2 a.m.
Officers said the adult male lion may have come closer to town looking for easy prey since it had a severe neck injury. They decided it was best to put it down since it was already mortally injured.
F&G Officer Kelton Hatch said later that a lion was also trapped and killed Sunday after apprently killing a goat near Broadford Road south of Hailey. F&G will analyze the lion to see if it may have killed the Labrador.