I thought by now the news frenzy about a former Denver Bronco killing a mountain lion would have moved on to reports that we’ve found more presidential classified documents.
But the story is alive and well — unlike the mountain lion at the center of this controversial tale.
As a Coloradan who lives in lion country raising goats and chickens, I am closely following the buzz after Derek Wolfe posted on his Instagram account photos of a mountain lion’s bloody carcass in his arms, then gutted and strapped to his back.
An online hunting magazine interviewed him after the kill and reported that “Wolfe had been waiting for an opportunity to get a mountain lion.”
Opportunity rang with a call from a close friend, Wolfe posted two weeks ago: “… I got a call from @huntnest to see if I wanted to stalk a giant Tom (male mountain lion) …”
Wolfe was referring to Alex Nestor, a hunting guide whose Instagram account features clients posed alongside dead zebra, rhino, hippo, and giraffe, plus videos of his multiple commercial mountain lion hunts.
Here’s the short version of Wolfe’s initial story on talk radio:
At 2 a.m. Wolfe was waiting at home in Greenwood Village, while his buddy Nestor was driving around prime mountain lion country outside Denver, looking for fresh tracks in hopes of finding a mountain lion for Wolfe to kill. “I was all jacked up, hunting a mountain lion is like Christmas morning for me because I love to hunt deer and elk, and mountain lions kill deer and elk,” Wolfe explained on air.
Wolfe was about to give up, but Nestor told him, “we’re gonna find you one.”
And he did.
Wolfe drove to Grant, a popular secluded spot for hiking and camping, where Nestor’s hounds barked at the big cat stuck in a tree; but Wolfe lagged 1 mile behind on foot, getting lost until he finally caught up.
There was a bonus to this trophy hunt, according to an online hunting magazine that says “the cat isn’t only a trophy for Wolfe … he actually did the local community a service.”
This is the spin widely promoted in subsequent interviews: that one area homeowner wanted him to “get rid” of a lion because one apparently had killed a dog last year.
Many Coloradans including 200 people who protested by calling Colorado Parks and Wildlife were not buying into the heroic narrative. Wolfe is now crying wolf, saying he’s being harassed for helping wildlife by taking out the biggest male of the “herds,” as he said in one interview.
Wolfe isn’t a large predator biologist or an ecologist, nor is the trophy hunting guide who did the set-up on the commercial kill of the lion. And therein lies the problem.
We don’t know if this particular cat had ever killed any dogs, and entertainment media isn’t asking this central question. Meanwhile, CPW responded to a request for reports of a dog-killing lion by saying it has “no records” of reports of mountain lion attacks on dogs in Grant from 2022 to the present. And Northeast Deputy Regional Manager Kristin Cannon confirmed what should have been a huge part of all of these news stories. “We don’t have any way to confirm or refute if the harvested lion was involved in conflict,” she explained in an email correspondence with Coloradans who wanted to know this critical point.
Evidence does show, however, that this predator had just dined on a “warm” deer before being hunted down, demonstrating this mountain lion was the appropriate hunter in this scenario.
This particular case seems like a ruse — an act of killing for pleasure masquerading as some sort of civil service.
There are, however, concerning reports of an unusual number of dogs being killed by mountain lions this winter in Nederland, as reported in The Denver Post.
One theory that can be reasonably considered based on science is that trophy hunting can contribute to making our dogs less safe. Science is clear that taking out one mature male quite adept at killing traditional prey, puts out the welcome mat for inexperienced, opportunistic juveniles who are more prone to kill a dog.
“For every large resident male killed, two or three young guys came to the funeral,” one prominent lion researcher told ABC News.
It’s why, for instance, we see young cats with porcupine quills in their nose. Humans are not at risk, because multiple studies show mountain lions choose to avoid us.
Looking to trophy hunters to save the day is no remedy and conversely is associated with “increased, not decreased, complaints and depredations” on nonhuman animals, according to one study.
A second study that concludes mountain-lion-human conflict is positively related to trophy hunting also warns about dire consequences from this path of “overexploitation and persecution of large carnivores resulting from conflict with humans.”
To counter all this negative hyperbolic press about “monster” mountain lions supposedly “wreaking havoc” in our neighborhoods, as Wolfe’s words drove headlines in at least 20 news outlets, we can instead choose to listen to top scientists like Mark Elbroch who says mountain lions are the key to a healthy ecosystem, and the real danger is climate, extreme weather and biodiversity crises.
“Coexisting with cougars will require education around perceived versus actual threats, what benefits the cats bring, and how to be around them safely,” Elbroch wrote in a recent Oped. This is especially important for people living on the front lines …”
The moral of this story, “How a Wolfe killed a Lion,” is a cautionary tale of how an individual constructs a false reality to justify cruelty for his own entertainment. This was trophy hunting in its purest form, with an imaginary social benefit to the unsporting killing of an animal that truly holds the key to a healthy Colorado.
Deanna Meyer lives west of Denver in mountain lion country, and is executive director for Prairie Protection Colorado.
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