In late spring 2023, New Mexico Game and Fish opened the bear and cougar hunting rules for review as it does every 4 years. The public was invited to provide comments. But the agency only provided a document totaling 1.5 pages that encompassed statements about its proposed black bear (Ursus americanus) and cougar (Puma concolor) rule changes with no specifics about what was being proposed. A few more pages were provided in August with a little more detail about the proposals but very little about the justifications for those proposals. The public has little information about the studies NMDGF relies upon to make population determinations, and no population management objectives (other than implicit hunter satisfaction and future hunting opportunities) have been made public for either species.
Science is missing from the bear and cougar proposals
