The Wildlife ServicesвЂ™ lethal predator control program must end, and the taxpayers, wildlife, and wildlands will reap the benefits.Дespite miniscule livestock losses, ongoing covert federal wildlife-killing operations are conducted each year on our most treasured wildlands and forests.Д®very five years, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), an arm of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), compiled the newest cattle inventory and loss numbers published in May 2011, and showed: In 2010, cattle inventory dipped to 94 million head, down from 104.5 million in 2005-the last time NASS issued its Cattle Death Loss report. While the feds assault millions of our native wolves, bears, cougars, and coyotes, the true cattle killers are illness and weather. While lethal predator control does little to help the fat cats of agribusiness, it ensures that the USDA-Wildlife Services stays in business. The livestock predation myth is a big lie imposed on the American public. Yet, the predation myth has directly contributed to a federal, 100-year, paramilitary assault on millions of native carnivores. The governmentвЂ™s own data show that the real killers of cattle are not a few endangered wolves or other wildlife вЂ“ itвЂ™s illness and weather. Truth: Less than a quarter of one percent, 0.23%, of the American cattle inventory was lost to native carnivores and dogs in 2010, according to a Department of Agriculture report. In the wild, mountain lions typically live for about 8-10 years.Myth: Wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, and others kill lots of cattle. They are one of the few predators in this area that make a meal out of porcupines, flipping them onto their backs to get at the unprotected bellies.ДЄt the Sanctuary, our mountain lion gets a variety of meats and bones. With larger prey, they stalk the animal and then leap onto its back and kill it with a bite to the back of the neck. In Yellowstone, their preferred prey is elk, but they are perfectly happy eating deer, moose, bighorn sheep, pronghorns, squirrels, and birds. Mountain lions can take down prey significantly bigger than they are. Grizzlies are capable of taking kills away from both wolves and mountain lions.ДЄlthough the mountain lion is considered a вЂњspecies of least concernвЂќ by the IUCN, and they are not threatened in this ecosystem, certain subspecies like the Florida panther are classified as endangered in other parts of the country. Wolves have taken the apex predator role mostly because they hunt in packs. Mountain lions have filled a variety of roles in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Our other two wildcats in this ecosystem, bobcats and Canada lynxes, are easily distinguished from mountain lions by their much smaller size and much shorter tails. They also have a well-known scream, which you can listen to in the вЂњSoundsвЂќ section of this page.ДЄs their species name suggests, mountain lions have basically single-color tawny coats, with lighter patches on the muzzle, throat, and belly. Only three of the вЂњbig catsвЂќ in the subfamily Pantherinae are larger than mountain lions: tigers, lions, and panthers.Д«eing вЂњsmall catsвЂќ means that mountain lions canвЂ™t roar, but they can purr. They are also the largest of the вЂњsmall cats,вЂќ which is the subfamily Felinae. Mountain Lions, also known as pumas, panthers, painters, catamounts, and cougars, are the largest wild cat in North America.

Wolf vs mountain lion