With a second lactating female mountain lion killed and three more kittens rescued during South Dakota's season, biologists in North Dakota are taking a wait-and-see approach on how they would handle orphaned kittens.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," said Randy Kreil, wildlife division chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, on Thursday.

Although North Dakota's mountain lion season opened Sept. 2, no cats have been harvested. The season is scheduled to close March 12, or earlier if the five-cougar quota is met.

Hunters in South Dakota have killed 12 cats, all in the Black Hills, since its season opened Oct. 1, including the two lactating females. Each of those females had three kittens hidden in dens near where they were shot.

The 12th lion was a female that was killed Thursday morning south of Sturgis, S.D., and biologists were checking the area to see if any kittens were around.

South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks staff found both earlier litters, and all of those kittens were taken to South Dakota State University. Biologists estimate South Dakota's Black Hills mountain population at 145.

South Dakota's season has drawn criticism from mountain lion groups and others, and the criticism has been especially heated over the deaths of the nursing females. Rescuing the orphaned kittens was more about public perception than wildlife management, a GF&P official told the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal.

South Dakota's season is scheduled to end Dec. 15 or earlier if either five breeding-age females or 25 total cats are harvested. Four breeding-age females, including the lion taken Thursday, are among the 12 cats already harvested. Two other females too young to breed also have been shot.

Through August, there have been 66 mountain lion sightings in North Dakota, said NDGFD furbearer biologist Dorothy Fecske. Eight of those sightings have been verified through physical evidence such as hair or scat. Another verification is pending.

Fecske has heard anecdotal reports that some North Dakotans are hunting mountain lions.

"In one case, using dogs," she said, "and in the others, they tried to call them in."

Biologists hope North Dakota's season will help them determine if the state has a resident mountain lion population.

"That's one of the main benefits of the season, to try to determine what we have for lions in the state, and whether we have a breeding population or not," Kreil said.

The odds of someone harvesting a cougar should go up when North Dakota's deer gun season opens at noon on Nov. 4, but "how far those odds go up we don't know," Kreil said.

Between 60,000 and 70,000 people are expected to take to the field for the deer opener, Kreil said, but they won't have equal chances.

"The majority of those people are hunting in the eastern two-thirds of the state, where mountain lion sightings are less common," he said.