Game Board Votes to Postpone Hunting of Lions

Game hunters will have to wait at least another year before opening fire on California mountain lions, the state Fish and Game Commission ruled Friday.

The agency decided to postpone open season on the animals until state officials can study their breeding, eating and living habits.

The 3-2 vote, confirming a preliminary decision April 5 in San Diego, came after commissioners meeting in Long Beach heard testimony from several sources, including hunters, sportsmen, conservationists and actor Robert Redford.

In a letter to the commission, Redford--who played a big-game hunter in the Academy Award-winning motion picture “Out of Africa”--expressed opposition to the hunting of lions, a practice he termed “greatly offensive to many.”

Vigorous debate on the future of the state’s mountain lion population has continued since Jan. 1, when a 14-year moratorium on hunting the animals expired. Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed a bill that would have extended it.

Viewed as Threat to Deer

Hunters maintain that mountain lions--now believed to number about 4,800 in California--threaten the state’s deer population on which they prey and should therefore be subject to management through sport hunting. Animal lovers and conservationists want continued protection for the lions.

Feelings on the matter became particularly strong last month after a lion attacked and seriously injured a 5-year-old girl in Caspers Wilderness Park in Orange County.