PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - State lawmakers have signed off on the first-ever mountain lion season in South Dakota, allowing the predators to be killed with rifles, pistols, shotguns that fire slugs, and bows and arrows.

Lawmakers who serve on the Legislature's Rules Review Committee endorsed a set of standards 4-2 on Monday that establish the season.

Hunters can begin stalking the big cats on Oct. 1 in the Black Hills National Forest.

A 25-lion quota has been set, but the season will end on Dec. 15 or whenever five breeding-age females have been killed.

Hunters must report kills within 24 hours to the Game, Fish and Parks Department, said George Vandel, assistant director of the agency's Wildlife Division.

In addition to unlimited lion licenses that will be available for hunting the cats in the Black Hills, landowners can get licenses statewide to shoot an unlimited number of lions on their property, he said.

Opponents argued Monday that data do not support such a hunting season and said that hunting pressure and natural mortality could eliminate lions in South Dakota.

However, Vandel said extensive research has been done for several years on mountain lions in the Black Hills, and a hunting season can by justified by the data.

An estimated 145 mountain lions roam the South Dakota side of the Black Hills and another 20 may inhabit the Wyoming side, he said. It is estimated that 45 of the lions that inhabit the South Dakota side are females, 10 are dominant males and the other 90 are juvenile lions about equally split among the sexes, he said.

Younger lions are most likely to be killed by hunters, he said.

About 20 lions are currently fitted with radio collars and are being tracked, he said. Research indicates that some lions are being forced from the Black Hills onto surrounding prairie, and some of those transient animals have wandered for hundreds of miles, Vandel said.

"They've saturated all the available (Black Hills) habitat," he said.

Of 11 western states that have sustainable mountain lion populations, only California does not allow them to be hunted, Vandel said.

The lion population, which was nearly wiped out at the beginning of last century, has rebounded in recent years, Vandel said. It was estimated that there were only 40-50 lions in the Black Hills in 1997, he said.