Montana is heading into another winter of mountain lion science, and the state needs civilian dog handlers to do the hard part: chasing cougars up trees so biologists can dart them.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has posted a solicitation for houndsmen to assist with the winter 2026/2027 capture season. The work involves what lion researchers call "tree and dart" operations: trained hound packs pursue lions through mountain terrain until the cats climb a tree, at which point FWP biologists move in to tranquilize the animal, take measurements, collect DNA, and often attach a GPS collar before the lion recovers and walks away. FWP does not keep its own hound packs, so it has long contracted with private houndsmen, a small and specialized community concentrated in the Rocky Mountain West.
The reason for all this fieldwork is Montana's remarkable lion comeback. Cougars were killed on sight under a state bounty system through much of the 20th century. Montana ended those bounties in 1962 and reclassified mountain lions as a game species in 1971. Populations recovered steadily through the following decades, and by the 2010s FWP estimated 4,000 to 5,000 lions statewide, likely the largest concentration in the Lower 48.
Source: NationGraph.
That abundance has political consequences. Montana's FWP Commission, under Governor Greg Gianforte, has generally pushed for more aggressive predator management and expanded hunting quotas. Setting those quotas on solid scientific footing matters: without rigorous population estimates, quota decisions become vulnerable to legal challenges from hunters seeking more tags and wildlife advocates worried about overharvest. The capture-recapture method, which uses DNA samples collected from sedated lions to estimate how many animals are in a given area, is the most reliable tool FWP has.
Montana is one of the only states in the Lower 48 where hound hunting for lions remains legal during the general season. Neighboring Washington, Oregon and California have all banned the practice, making Montana a rare venue for this kind of fieldwork. For rural Montanans in lion country, the population data has direct relevance: cougar depredation on livestock and pets is a steady concern, and the occasional attack on a human draws statewide attention.
The winter 2026/2027 contracts continue a multi-year rotation through the state's four management ecoregions. FWP has been systematically refreshing its population data region by region, and the DNA and collar data gathered this winter will feed into future quota decisions. How many houndsmen will be contracted and which specific regions are targeted this season have not been detailed publicly.
