Mountain Lion Harvest Reporting - Recommended Adoption of Proposed Changes

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Commission Agenda Item No. 3
Presenter: Jonah Evans

Action
Mountain Lion Harvest Reporting
Recommended Adoption of Proposed Changes
May 28, 2026

I.              Executive Summary: Staff seeks adoption of the proposed amendment to rules governing mountain lions. The proposed amendment would establish harvest reporting requirements for mountain lions.
  
II.           Discussion: Under Texas Parks and Wildlife Code section 67.002, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is required to develop and administer management programs for nongame wildlife, which may include conducting scientific investigations and surveys of nongame species for better protection and conservation. In November 2025, the Mountain Lion Research and Monitoring Plan was presented to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission (Commission). The plan outlined the importance of accurate harvest data for development of a population monitoring program and the challenges with the current voluntary system, as voluntary methods for collecting mountain lion harvest data are now known to be ineffective for population estimation purposes. A mandatory reporting system can provide sufficient data with county-level reports collected via the TPWD website or a simple smartphone-based reporting application, and precise location data and property names are not necessary for population estimation purposes. To complete the reporting process, a premolar and small tissue sample must be submitted within 60 days of harvest for sex and age confirmation. Staff recommends that the Commission adopt a mandatory harvest reporting requirement for mountain lions to enable accurate population estimation.

At the Commission Work Session meeting on March 25, 2026, staff was authorized to publish the proposed changes in the Texas Register for public comment. The proposed changes appeared in the April 24, 2026, issue of the Texas Register (51 TexReg 2600). A summary of public comment on the proposed changes will be presented at the time of the meeting.

III.     Recommendation: Staff recommends that the Commission adopt the following motion:

“The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopts the amendment to Title 31 of the Texas Administrative Code, section 65.950 as listed in Exhibit A, with changes as necessary to the proposed text as published in the April 24, 2026, issue of the Texas Register (51 TexReg 2600).”

Attachment — 1

Exhibit A – Nongame Wildlife Rules - Mountain Lions

Commission Agenda Item No. 3
Exhibit A

NONGAME WILDLIFE RULES

MOUNTAIN LIONS

PROPOSAL PREAMBLE

1. Introduction.

         The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department proposes an amendment to 31 TAC §65.950, concerning Mountain Lions. The proposed amendment would create a mandatory harvest reporting system for mountain lions in Texas, which is a critical component of the department’s ongoing attempts to better monitor mountain lion populations.

        In 2022, the Chairman of the Commission directed the formation of a Mountain Lion Stakeholder Working Group consisting of landowners, livestock producers, private land managers, trappers, and natural resource professionals. The group was charged with making recommendations for the development of a mountain lion management plan. There was broad consensus that the current approach to data collection (voluntary reporting) is inadequate, because voluntary reports represent an unknown proportion of the total harvest, and that better data on mountain lion populations and demographics is necessary to make meaningful population assessments, guide research efforts, and inform agency actions, if any are necessary. Staff has continued dialogue with stakeholders over the last three years while canvassing management and regulatory strategies in other states, and has developed an integrated population model (IPM) that utilizes various population parameters (births, deaths, and movements in and out of local populations) to assess populations and develop more accurate estimates.  Effective population monitoring requires data from multiple population parameters to allow a larger picture to coalesce. Birth rates and movements in and out of a population typically vary within limited and predictable ranges which can be quantified. The variation is primarily due to environmental conditions such as drought or food availability. Death rates from human causes, however, tend to fluctuate unpredictably and therefore should regularly be assessed for population estimates to be accurate. Because the primary source of mountain lion mortality in Texas, on the basis of all past studies in Texas and data from other states where hunting is permitted, appears to be people, a reliable annual estimate of total harvest is one of if not the most important pieces of information needed for the model to function optimally.

        Because the functionality and utility of the IPM depend upon accurate, timely data, particularly with respect to mountain lion mortality and mortality rates, staff have concluded that the best avenue to acquiring meaningful scientific data on mountain lion populations is to require some sort of mandatory harvest reporting program, which would provide the department with accurate, highly useful data collected at county-level scale (because the population inferences for mountain lions must be made at broad spatial extents due to the species’ large home ranges).

        The proposed amendment would create new subsection (e) to require a person who takes a mountain lion to report the take within 24 hours via the department’s website or mobile application. The report would provide basic information necessary for the department to supply data for the IPM, such as the date, county of harvest, and method of take, and do so in very close to real time (the more closely the data tracks actual events, the finer the resolution of the model). The department hastens to note that the automated report neither requests nor records location data at any level more precise than county level, nor does it request property names or other identifying information. The department notes that the functionality of the mobile application does not require network connectivity at the time a reporting requirement is executed; a person complies with reporting requirements by entering required data on a device, which records the date and time of the report. The information is then transmitted to the department when connectivity is established. The proposed new subsection also would require the submission of a biological sample from each mountain lion harvested, to consist of a premolar and a small patch of dry tissue, which allows the department to conduct definitive laboratory analysis unique to the harvested animal. For that reason, the rule also stipulates that biological samples be segregated on a per-animal basis, to avoid data corruption. Finally, the proposed amendment would provide an option for the department to conduct sample collection rather than the person who killed the mountain lion. The department notes that in either case, there is no cost to the person who killed the mountain lion.

2. Fiscal Note.

        Robert Macdonald, Regulations Coordinator, has determined that for each of the first five years that the rule as proposed is in effect, there will be fiscal implications to the department as a result of administering or enforcing the rule as proposed of approximately $26,000, consisting of the cost of pre-paid mailers and the laboratory analysis of biological samples. The department generously estimates that no more than 250 mountain lions are killed each year; thus, at $4 per mailer, the cost of pre-paid mailers should be approximately $1,000 per year. The cost of laboratory analysis (tooth age analysis, genetic analysis) is estimated to be less than $100 per sample; thus, the department estimates the cost to the department to be approximately $25,000 per year.

        There will be no fiscal implications to other units of state or local government.

3. Public Benefit/Cost Note.

        Mr. Macdonald also has determined that that for each of the first five years that the rule as proposed is in effect:

                 (A) The public benefit anticipated as a result of enforcing or administering the proposed rule will be a better understanding of nongame species, the management of which is crucial to healthy, balanced, and functional wildlife systems.

                 (B) The rule as proposed will not result in adverse economic impacts to persons required to comply.

                 (C) Under provisions of Government Code, Chapter 2006, a state agency must prepare an economic impact statement and a regulatory flexibility analysis for a rule that may have an adverse economic effect on small businesses, micro-businesses, and rural communities. As required by Government Code, §2006.002(g), in April 2008, the Office of the Attorney General issued guidelines to assist state agencies in determining a proposed rule’s potential adverse economic impact on small businesses. Those guidelines state that an agency need only consider a proposed rule’s "direct adverse economic impacts" to small businesses and micro-businesses to determine if any further analysis is required. For that purpose, the department considers "direct economic impact" to mean a requirement that would directly impose recordkeeping or reporting requirements; impose taxes or fees; result in lost sales or profits; adversely affect market competition; or require the purchase or modification of equipment or services. The department has determined that the proposed rule will not result in a direct economic costs to small businesses and micro-businesses.

        The department has determined that the rule as proposed will not affect rural communities, as it does not directly regulate any rural community.

                 (D) The department has not drafted a local employment impact statement under the Administrative Procedures Act, §2001.022, as the agency has determined that the rule as proposed will not impact local economies.

                 (E) The department has determined that Government Code, §2001.0225 (Regulatory Analysis of Major Environmental Rules), does not apply to the proposed rule.

                 (F) The department has determined that there will not be a taking of private real property, as defined by Government Code, Chapter 2007, as a result of the proposed rule.

                 (G) In compliance with the requirements of Government Code, §2001.0221, the department has prepared the following Government Growth Impact Statement (GGIS).  The rule as proposed, if adopted, will:

                         (1) not create a government program;

                         (2) not result in an increase or decrease in the number of full-time equivalent employee needs;

                         (3) not result in a need for additional General Revenue funding;

                         (4) not affect the amount of any fee;

                         (5) create a new regulation (to require reporting of mountain lion harvest);

                         (6) expand an existing regulation;

                         (7) neither increase nor decrease the number of individuals subject to regulation; and

                         (8) not positively or adversely affect the state’s economy.

4. Request for Public Comment.

        Comments on the proposed rule may be submitted to Jonah Evans, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 78744; (830) 431-1491; email: jonah.evans@tpwd.texas.gov or via the department website at https://tpwd.texas.gov/.

5. Statutory Authority.

        The new rule is proposed under the authority of Parks and Wildlife Code, §67.004, which requires the commission by regulation to establish any limits on the taking, possession, propagation, transportation, importation, exportation, sale, or offering for sale of nongame fish or wildlife that the department considers necessary to manage the species.

        The proposed new rule affects Parks and Wildlife Code, Chapter 67.

6. Rule Text.

        §65.950. Mountain Lions (Puma concolor).

                 (a) – (d) (No change.)

                 (e) A person who takes a mountain lion in this state must report the take via the department’s website or mobile application within 24 hours.

                         (1) A report is not valid unless it contains, at a minimum, the following:

                                  (A) species of harvest;

                                  (B) date of harvest, if known;

                                  (C) county of harvest;

                                  (D) method of take; and

                                  (E) measure of effort (the amount of time devoted to the take activity resulting in harvest).

                         (2) Within 60 days of reporting take as required by this subsection, the person who harvested the mountain lion shall submit a biological sample to the department, using a pre-paid mailer provided by the department, consisting of the identification number for the mountain lion assigned by the department’s app or website, accompanied by:

                                  (A) at least one complete, unbroken premolar (a permanent tooth located between the canines and the molars); and

                                  (B) a patch of dry tissue of at least 5mm by 5mm in size.

                                  (C) A separate mailer must be used for each mountain lion (i.e., one mailer shall not be used to submit biological samples from more than one mountain lion).

                         (3) In lieu of compliance with the provisions of paragraph (2) of this subsection, a person who kills a mountain lion may contact the department upon harvest and schedule a sample collection by department personnel. The provisions of this paragraph cease to apply seven days from the time the harvest has been reported as required by this subsection.

        This agency hereby certifies that the proposal has been reviewed by legal counsel and found to be within the agency’s authority to adopt.

        Issued in Austin, Texas, on