Montana governor kills mountain lion being monitored by national park staff

The governor of Montana, Greg Gianforte, shot and killed a mountain lion that was being monitored by national park staff, after hunting the animal with hounds and chasing it up a tree.

The Republican governor hunted the lion on 28 December, according to details first reported by the Washington Post that were confirmed on Monday by Gianforte’s press secretary, Brooke Stroyke. Stroyke said the governor had a valid hunting license, drove the lion up the tree, and shot it.

Related: Greg Gianforte kills black wolf in violation of Montana regulations

“The governor and friends tracked the lion on public lands,” said Stroyke in a statement emailed to the Post. “As the group got closer to the lion, members of the group, who have a hound training license, used four hounds to tree the lion once the track was discovered in a creek bottom on public land.”

Stroyke also said that once the mountain lion was in the tree, Gianforte confirmed it was male, “harvested it, and put his tag on it”.

“He immediately called to report the legal harvest and then the [Montana fish, wildlife and parks] game warden. In Livingston, the governor met the game warden who tagged the lion and took the collar.”

The hunt happened on public US Forest Service land located south-west of Emigrant, Montana, according to residents familiar with the hunting episode who spoke anonymously to preserve community ties, reported the Post.

The five-year-old mountain lion was being monitored by Yellowstone staff via a GPS collar and was known to park biologists as M220.

The mountain lion hunt is not Gianforte’s first time hunting monitored wildlife. In February 2021, Gianforte killed a collared wolf 10 miles outside Yellowstone that was similarly tracked by national park staff and known as 1155.

The wolf hunt was a violation of state rules as Gianforte did not complete a mandatory trapping class beforehand.

Conservationists have remained outraged at Gianforte’s personal hunting of monitored wildlife and support of controversial pro-hunting laws passed last year in Montana, including an ordinance that directed a decrease in Montana’s wolf population and allowed hunters to kill wolves located just outside Yellowstone’s boundaries.

“The consequences are severe for wolves,” said Dan Wenk, Yellowstone’s superintendent from 2011 to 2019. In just the past six months, a record 25 Yellowstone wolves were killed, 19 from Montana.

While federal law bans hunting in Yellowstone, animals who migrate off park grounds are often killed by hunters.

Almost 190 bison were killed during the 2020-21 winter season after wandering outside of the park’s boundaries in Montana.