The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has approved a 2025 mountain lion hunting season that includes a new unit in the Wildcat Hills to complement the existing units in the Pine Ridge and Niobrara Valley.
The Wildcat Hills unit includes parts of Scotts Bluff, Morrill, Cheyenne, Garden, Kimball, and Banner counties.
Nebraska’s first mountain lion harvest took place in 2014 in the Pine Ridge with annual seasons starting in 2019 and the Niobrara Valley added this year.
Next year’s will use a residents-only lottery to award up to 960 permits in the Pine Ridge Unit, 320 in the Niobrara Unit and 240 in the Wildcat Hills.
The Pine Ridge season limit is 12 mountain lions or a sub-limit of 6 females, the Niobrara limit is 4 total or 2 females while the Wildcat Hills limit is 3 or 2 females.
The season in all 3 units is Jan. 2- Feb 28, but will end immediately in a unit if the annual harvest limit or female sub-limit is reached.
If a unit fails to reach either limit by the end of the season, an auxiliary season allowing the use of dogs would be held March 15-31 with 1 permit for each remaining unfilled limit.
Those permits would be issued by lottery to holders of a regular season permit for that unit that failed to take a mountain lion.
Mountain lions were native to Nebraska, but were killed off during the homestead era. They weren’t seen in the state again until the early 1990s, but individuals migrating in from South Dakota and Wyoming have now established the 3 breeding populations.
Game and Parks genetic surveys indicate the number of mountain lions in the Pine Ridge more than doubled in 2 years from 33 to 70 last year with the Niobrara Valley population at 27 with 24 in the Wildcat Hills. This year’s update is expected this fall.
The objective of Nebraska’s mountain lion season is to provide a harvest opportunity for hunters that will keep the species population resilient and healthy while lowering numbers to levels that fit the habitat