Nebraska’s mountain lion country will ring in the new year with the busiest hunting season to date for the species, including the first regulated hunt in the Wildcat Hills region.

The mountain lion season is divided into three units and begins Jan. 2. The season ends immediately in each unit when its limit, or a sub-limit of females, has been met or when the season closes at the end of February. If the limits aren’t met, an auxiliary season will be conducted March 15-31.

It will be Nebraska’s largest harvest to date if hunters are successful. Most of the action will occur in the Pine Ridge of northwestern Nebraska, where a harvest limit of 12 cats, with a sub-limit of six females, has been set. The Wildcat Hills unit along the Platte Valley of the western Panhandle has a limit of three and the Niobrara Valley of north-central Nebraska four, each with a two-female sub-limit.

The limits for each unit were set to help the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s objective to maintain resilient, healthy, and socially acceptable mountain lion populations that are in balance with available habitat and other wildlife species over the long term.

“The goal of this year’s harvest is to reduce the population in the Pine Ridge, and slightly reduce the population in the Wildcat Hills and maintain stable numbers or slow growth in the Niobrara Valley. The number of permits issued and a possible auxiliary season, will allow the harvest limit to be met while decreasing the likelihood of exceeding it,” said Sam Wilson, furbearer and carnivore program manager for Game and Parks.

A total of 1,520 permits were available to Nebraska residents by a drawing — 960 in the Pine Ridge Unit, 320 for the Niobrara, and 240 for the Wildcat Hills. If an auxiliary season — which allows the use of tracking dogs — is needed, one permit for each animal remaining in the limit for that unit will be issued.

Mountain lions are native to Nebraska but were extirpated from the state in the early 1900s. They moved back into the state from South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado as populations of prey species increased. Mountain lion presence in Nebraska was confirmed in the early 1990s, and in 1995 the state legislature classified them as game animals.

Since then, the cats have established reproducing populations in Nebraska’s most rugged terrain: the Pine Ridge, Wildcat Hills and Niobrara Valley with occasional confirmed presence in other parts of the state. Hunting seasons have occurred seven times in the Pine Ridge beginning in 2014, and the Niobrara Unit had its first season in 2024.

The cats of the Pine Ridge, where the population is highest and longest established, have been the subject of extensive research. The methods include genetic surveys and tracking collars.

Population estimates from 2023 indicate about 70 total mountain lions, adults and kittens, were present in the Pine Ridge at the time of the survey, up from an estimate of 33 in 2021. Wilson said the number is above the agency’s objective for the Pine Ridge.

In 2023, 27 mountain lions were documented in the Niobrara Valley and 24 in the Wildcat Hills.

Game and Parks continues researching the mountain lion population. As of early December, the agency had working GPS collars on 14 mountain lions in the Pine Ridge, Wildcat Hills and Niobrara Valley.

In May and June of 2024, the agency conducted genetic surveys, which includes collection and DNA analysis of scat, in the Niobrara Valley and Wildcat Hills. Results from those efforts will help inform management decisions and harvest limits for the following season.