Nebraska mountain lion hunting season ends; 13 cougars killed
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Nebraska’s 2025 mountain lion hunting season is in the books, officials announced Tuesday.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission said the hunt ended Sunday after the limit on female cats was met in the Pine Ridge, one of three areas in the state where mountain lion hunting is permitted.
The limits were already met in the Wildcat Hills and Niobrara hunting units.
In total, 13 mountain lions were killed this season.
That includes seven (one male and six females) in the Pine Ridge. The harvest limit there was 12 cougars overall or six females.
Game and Parks said fresh snow made for good tracking conditions, which helped make the season short.
SEE ALSO: Mountain lion season comes to quick close in central Nebraska; limit reached on opening day
Mountain lions became extinct in Nebraska in the early 1900s.
But by the 1990s, they started moving back from neighboring states.
They have since established breeding populations in the Pine Ridge, the Wildcat Hills and the Niobrara River valley and are occasionally spotted roaming through other parts of the state.
This was Game and Parks’ eighth mountain lion hunting season.
SEE ALSO: ‘Too close for comfort’: Mountain lion caught on cameras in Lancaster County
