Sean Murphy worked for New Mexico Game and Fish as their Carnivore and Small Mammals Program Manager from 2016 to 2018. He has a background in large carnivore reintroductions and worked for Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries reintroducing federally endangered carnivores like red wolves and restoring black bears. Science based research is his constant, and he was alarmed at how carnivores were being treated in New Mexico without conducting actual studies before making policy decisions. 

During Murphy’s tenure, he lead a lion density study in the mountains around Santa Fe. Murphy tells me the densities Mexico Game and Fish used were borrowed from other states, some of which had habitat entirely different than what was in New Mexico. Then they based their harvest limits on this. When Murphy finished his study for the northern section which encompassed hunt Area B, it showed a much lower lion population number than what NMGF based their harvest quotas on. The harvest limit was then reduced to reflect a more accurate count.

In New Mexico’s quest to reintroduce desert bighorn sheep, they adopted a no-tolerance policy towards mountain lions. In the 6 desert bighorn ranges that NMGF manages directly, all on public lands, contractors are hired year-round to clear those ranges of mountain lions. Contractors using dogs and snares, are paid up to $400 a day plus $3000 per adult lion removed. A minimum of 10 snares must be checked or placed each paid day. Adult lions are defined as forty pounds or more, an extremely small minimum weight to classify as an adult .

In this short clip of our interview, I ask Murphy his perspective on the NMGF desert bighorn sheep-lion program.

Murphy continues to do studies independently on mountain lions. He is currently conducting a lion study in NE Arizona.