The 2025 mountain lion hunting season in Nebraska’s Niobrara Unit closed
Jan. 2 after three mountain lions, one male and two females, were
harvested on opening day.
Regulations require the Niobrara Unit to be closed once the annual harvest
limit of four mountain lions — with a sublimit of 2 females — is reached.
Among the successful hunts was a nearly 150-pound male, taken south of
Nenzel along the Niobrara River by local resident Adam Naslund,
Season 1 in the Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills units continues through the
end of February unless the harvest limit is met earlier, prompting the
season to close. The harvest limit for the Pine Ridge is 12 mountain lions
with a sublimit of six females and for the Wildcat Hills the limit is
three mountain lions with a female sublimit of two.
One female mountain lion has been harvested in the Pine Ridge and none in
the Wildcat Hills unit as of Jan. 2.
The Niobrara Unit was added to the Pine Ridge Unit for mountain lion
hunting for the first time for the 2024 season. The Niobrara Unit
encompasses parts of Brown, Cherry, Keya Paha, Rock, Holt, Boyd and
Sheridan counties.
This is the state’s eighth mountain lion harvest season; the first was in
2014.
