The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission soon will be deciding whether to let people hunt mountain lions in the state.

The proposal to be considered at the commission’s May 24 meeting would allow a total of three the big cats to be taken over two short periods of one season in parts of the Nebraska Panhandle. One hundred permits would be issued by lottery to Nebraska residents and one through an auction also open to nonresidents.

Officials say mountain lions all but vanished from Nebraska by 1890. The cats have been making a comeback in the northwest corner of the state and have traveled as far east in Nebraska as Omaha. The commission estimates the Pine Ridge area has a population of 22 animals.