Story, a small community tucked into the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains, is popular with tourists, deer and mountain lions, according to Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist Dan Thiele.

While visitors frequent Story's shops and bed-and-breakfast inns, whitetail and mule deer frequent the nearby hills, fields and thickets - drawn by abundant forage and the occasional handout from locals who just can't resist putting food out for their hooved friends.

"It can be a contentious issue, because people do love deer," Thiele said.

What complicates things is that the large number of deer in the area have attracted another sort of visitor - mountain lions, which find the abundant prey base nearly irresistible.

Thiele said there have been many, many sightings of mountain lions in the rural community. People there are so sensitive about the big cats that house cats have been spotted and thought to be mountain lions, he said.

The growing awareness about lions drawn into residential settings and human safety has resulted in four of the big cats removed by game officials this year - two from the Buffalo area, one from Sheridan and another from near Big Horn.

On Thursday, Thiele made a pitch for $14,285 from the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board to pay for a two-year study of GPS-collared mountain lions. Most of the money would be spent in the first year - tracking mountain lions down with trained hounds, treeing them, tranquilizing the lions with dart guns and then putting GPS collars on them after the next hunting season.

"We'd like to look at their behavior, see how much time they spend around residences," Thiele told the board during its meeting in Casper. That would enable officials to get a better handle on the whole safety issue and compare public reports about sightings with GPS mapping records of mountain lions moving in and around Story.

"We could pretty quickly identify their feeding areas," Thiele said. Finally, the study would help wildlife biologists determine the best response - remove them or leave them alone, he said.

The numbers of hunting licenses have been increased for both deer and mountain lions, yet Story and the entire Big Horn front continue to have abundant populations of both species. Hunting access is a growing problem along the front, Thiele said, which gives deer and mountain lions a sort of sanctuary.

The potential for more human/lion conflict can only get worse, said Thiele and Terry Cleveland, director of the Game and Fish Department, as more and more people move into Wyoming's most scenic habitats.

"We're going to see more and more of this as time goes on," Cleveland said.

The Animal Damage Management Board continues meeting today at the Game and Fish building in Casper, 3030 Energy Drive, beginning at 8 a.m. and running until noon. The board has been hearing a number of reports and funding requests and will make final decisions today.