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Show Restructuring Of Utah's Cougar Management Unit Boundaries Is Considered By Wildlife Board Restructuring of Utah's cougar management unit boundaries and a review of the 1996-97 Utah cougar season was presented to Division of Wildlife Resources board members to help them prepare for their August meeting, when they'll be asked to approve the 1997-98 Utah Cougar Proclamation. Procla-mation. Cougar management unit boundaries will change in some areas because of the consolidation consol-idation of elk, deer, moose, bear' and cougar management units into standard Wildlife Management Manage-ment Units, which the board approved at its May meeting. Boyde Blackwell, Division mammals program coordinator, explained the boundary changes to the board. He also provided the board with 1996-97 cougar hunt data, which will be used by Division biologists and regional wildlife program managers when setting cougar permit numbers for the 1997-98 hunts. The quota of cougars to be taken was met on nine of Utah's 15 harvest objective management units in 1996-97, Blackwell told the board. The quota was met on four of the units within about a month, and within three or four months for the five other units that closed. The quota was not met on the remaining six units. , Harvest objective management manage-ment units were established in selected areas for Utah's 1996-97 cougar hunts, as one way of helping speed the recovery of Utah's deer herds by increasing the chances a specific number of cougars would be taken on those units. Total cougars taken in Utah during the 1996-97 season time period was 668, Blackwell said. Of those 576 were harvested by hunters, 43 were taken because of depredation concerns and 49 were taken by other means (hit by cars, etc. ) . Division staff will carefully review harvest data from the 1996- 97 hunts to determine the number of males, females, adults and juveniles taken, and will evaluate cougar predation when setting permit numbers for the 1997- 98 hunts, Blackwell said. Cougar permit recommendations recommen-dations for the 1997-98 hunts will be presented to the public at a series of Regional Advisory Council Coun-cil (RAC) meetings in August. The Division and RACs will provide recommendations to the board at an August board meeting. |