Accommodating and maintaining appropriate populations of predator species such as wolves, bears, cougars, and coyotes, is one of the most complex issues in North American wildlife conservation today. These predator species exist near or at the top of ecosystem food chains. They have few natural predators themselves, so their numbers are dictated primarily by available food, suitable habitats, and human-caused mortality. As a result, where their prey exists in abundance, predator populations have potential to attain high numbers that brings them into conflict with humans and management goals for other native wildlife species.