“I have (yet another) dumb question: Why not just let the hunters hunt the lions and bears? “
A PERFECT example of how government works. Letting hunters do the job for free; means no government bureaucrats would have jobs.
I’m no expert, I don’t hunt but it would be easy to sell licenses for bear but the mountain lions are hard to hunt because you really need trained dogs to find them. They have a large range and are really hard to track.
My cousin is a government trapper so he often has to deal with problem lions. Several years ago a lion killed a man and it took quite a few trappers to hunt him down.
Around here they just do their jobs and don’t talk about it.