“Are these on the rise?
“
Probably. Humans and coming into more empty territory where they roam.
Damn humans........!!
Prove it; as far as I can tell that's another eco-myth. Around here the land was settled for agriculture over a hundred-thirty years ago and abandoned when rural electrification powered well pumps down in the Santa Clara Valley. At that time the cats were under control. People started moving back in the 1970s. It wasn't until the Sierra Club sponsored a ballot initiative with all sorts of lies that the State banned hunting the cats that the cats have become a problem.
Now more of them are hunted and killed than ever, by unionized government hunters on a pension, where the State used to make a profit on tags.
They are moving into human occupied areas as well. For years, ‘anecdotal’ accounts of mountain lions along the Little Missouri River in ND were ignored—until someone shot one.
Some states have virtually outlawed lion hunting resulting in an increase in lions. I read that an adult lion needs about 200 square miles, and kills about 50 deer a year. I have no clue if that is true. I know that young lions get the new territories on the perimiter of lion country.