Sitting in a treehouse several miles from Manaus, Brazil, Monica Morrison felt like Alice in Wonderland, plucked from her Dallas condo and dropped into a strange world.
She was swept away by the sight of the Rio Negro cutting through the immense Amazon jungle and enchanted by every chirp and coo of the rainforest. What stood out to her most was the aroma of the Amazon jungle.
“It doesn’t smell like a pine forest, because it’s not, but there is just this remarkable, clean scent,” she said. “It left its mark on me.”
Morrison, 70, credits her visit to the Amazon forest as the start of her decades-long journey into advocating for Texas’ native cat species. After her first trip, she visited Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. She’s also traveled to Kenya to study African lions and their prey.
To date, Morrison has seen 17 jaguars, half a dozen ocelots, a couple of bobcats and a jaguarundi in the wild — no mountain lions.
“I’m determined to see them some day,” she said.
Earlier this year, Morrison’s organization, Texas Native Cats, was part of a coalition that successfully pushed state wildlife officials to adopt regulations to protect mountain lions — the first of their kind in Texas.
Mountain lions have a large range — “from the Yukon, all the way to the tip of South America,” Morrison said. In the U.S., mountain lion populations are breeding in the wild in 16 states, mostly in the western portion of the country.
Breeding mountain lion populations are found in west and south Texas. Among mountain lion advocates, there is some concern about the long-term viability of the population in the southern portion of the state.
Texas wildlife officials say they don’t have any definitive answers as it relates to how well or poorly the mountain lion population is doing.
“They are our apex predator, and they just need help,” Morrison said. “Trite as it might sound, they have no voice other than ours.”
Dana Karelus, a mammalogist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said some older studies suggested the mountain lion population near the southern U.S. border is declining.
The wildlife department does not have enough data to determine the extent of the loss.
“As far as we know, the general idea is that the western population has better connectivity to other mountain lion populations and is probably doing a little bit better,” Karelus said.
There are three cat species native to Texas currently found in the wild: ocelots, bobcats and mountain lions.
The bobcat is generally accepted as the most common, and the ocelot is considered endangered. Jaguars and jaguarundis, once native to Texas, have been extirpated.
Protections and regulations for mountain lions vary by state. In Florida, mountain lions – also known as Florida panthers – are considered endangered, and hunting or trapping them is illegal.
Texas is the only state with a breeding mountain lion population that classifies the animals as “non-game.” Mountain lions can be hunted and trapped year-round without harvest reporting requirements or bag limits.
In June 2022, the Texas Mountain Lion Coalition petitioned the state parks and wildlife commission to adopt regulations and provide some protections for the species in the state.
In May, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Commission adopted two of the six regulations.
One requirement was for mountain lion traps to be checked every 36 hours. The other was a ban on hunting mountain lions in captivity or releasing a mountain lion from captivity to be hunted — a practice known as “canned hunting.”
Some groups, including the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, have criticized the new regulations.
James Clement III, who leads the cattle raisers association’s wildlife committee, said the regulations don’t account for the “practical challenges” of managing predators on private land, adding that mountain lions are a “significant threat” to livestock.
“There is no evidence to suggest that mountain lions in Texas are endangered, nor that additional protective regulations are warranted at the expense of private property rights and a rancher’s ability to safeguard their livestock,” Clement said in an email. “As landowners, we are committed to preserving the balance between wildlife and livestock.”
The new regulations, which went into effect in September, will help protect Texas’ mountain lions from inhumane treatment, but they do little to help state wildlife officials track their population and movement.
Texas wildlife officials confirmed three mountain lion sightings in late-October and early November. Two sightings were in neighborhoods, one in Frisco and the other in Plano.
Sam Kieschnick, an urban biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told The Dallas Morning News the animal seen in the three sightings was likely the same mountain lion.
In addition to an influx of reports to the department showing security footage of street cats, high-profile sightings can lead to people asking more questions, Kieshnick said.
That was the case in 2020 when a mountain lion that was first spotted in Rowlett was killed by hunters in Hunt County.
“I think it does bring awareness of these native cats, and I think with the awareness of simply seeing one, people get curious about what Texas Parks and Wildlife is doing, but also what we know,” Kieshnick said.
Kieschnick and Karelus said mandatory harvesting reports would give the department important data that can inform population management plans for mountain lions.
“Not having any regulations on mountain lions prevents us from studying them; it prevents us from knowing more information about them,” Kieschnick said. “We’re sort of shooting in the dark for management.”
Morrison has always had an affinity for cats and their curious and explorative nature.
Her two cats — Roscoe, 17, and Sprout, 14 — keep her company at her home near Love Field Airport. She also has a taxidermied bobcat named Terry, which she takes to educational events and keeps a life-size cutout of a mountain lion named Laura in her car. Her bookshelves are filled with books about different cat species.
After returning from the Amazon, Morrison wanted to turn her love for cats into action.
“I really had no background in this,” she said. “I was a business major, for goodness sake.”
When she had time away from her day job, Morrison volunteered at the Dallas Zoo and, later, at big cat rescue sanctuaries in the area. She also started networking with other animal advocates in North Texas.
“I was doing what I still call to this day, ‘my cat stuff,’” she said.
In 2017, she started Texas Native Cats, which now has more than 20 volunteers and a chapter in Houston.
The goal of the organization is to educate people about the native Texas cat species, both past and present.
“We don’t want to lose any more cats; we’ve already lost jaguars and jaguarundis,” she said.
Morrison said her work with the Texas Mountain Lion Coalition and the two regulations adopted earlier this year are a major step toward more protections for Texas’ mountain lions and a major personal milestone for her as an animal advocate.
She and the other members of the coalition are continuing to advocate for more regulations to understand Texas’ mountain lion population.
“I’ve always kind of felt more-or-less like I had to prove myself in what I’m doing, and it’s starting to pay off now,” she said.