Submitted Photo Donny Haas of Bottineau holds up the mountain lion he shot in January. It is the first and only mountain lion to be harvested in Zone 2 this mountain lion hunting season, which closes on March 31.

BOTTINEAU — Donny Haas of Bottineau harvested a male mountain lion north of Lake Upsilon in the Turtle Mountains with a .257-caliber Roberts rifle on Jan. 10. As of Thursday, Haas’s mountain lion was the only one to be taken in hunting Zone 2 this season, which opened on Sept. 3, 2021, and closes on March 31.

The North Dakota Game and Fish (NDG&F) states that mountain lions range from 75 to 170 pounds, placing Haas’s kill in the upper size range at 165 pounds. It was Haas’s first mountain lion kill, and he said the experience was exciting. 

“I was just walking up north of Lake Upsilon, and I saw it. It was just walking on a deer trail actually,” he said. “It was unreal and exciting, and to just make it all connect and work was pretty special.”

There are two mountain lion zones in the state. Zone 2 encompasses the bulk of the state, excluding southwestern portions along the Montana border up to Williston and land around the Missouri River through the northwestern corner of McLean County that make up Zone 1. The Badlands and the Missouri River breaks are in Zone 1.

Mountain lion season in Zone 1 is split into an early season, which has a limit of eight mountain lions, a late season, which is limited to seven male mountain lions or three female mountain lions, whichever comes first, and a conditional season, which opens if the early season limit is not met.

The state limits the number of harvested animals in Zone 1 to maintain mountain lion populations. NDG&F section leader and furbearer biologist Stephanie Tucker said that North Dakota’s breeding population of mountain lions reside in Zone 1.

Tucker said Zone 2 doesn’t have a harvest limit because the breeding population isn’t located there. While there are mountain lions in Zone 2, they’re far less common.

NDG&F keeps track of reports of mountain lion occurrences in North Dakota. From July 2020 to June 2021, there were six reported mountain lion sightings in McKenzie County, which is in Zone 1. In Bottineau County, where Haas shot his mountain lion, there were two sightings over a year span.

This is the second season that Haas has tried for a mountain lion, and he said he’s pretty sure that he saw the same cat last year. 

“It was up there last year too, and I had some pictures of it and then it came back about the same time this year. I saw the tracks and went up there and got it,” he said. 

As far as what Haas plans to do with the mountain lion, he said he hopes to share it with the community in Bottineau. 

“I’m going to get a full body mount on it and then put it on display somewhere in the public so people can enjoy it,” Haas said.