More on the encounter between hikers and mountain lions

posted by Barry Parr on Feb 6, 2010 at 01:42 pm in  Environment   Recreation
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Tom Stienstra at the Chron has an interesting account of the encounter between two brothers and a couple of mountain lions in Pescadero Creek County Park, “a remote, lightly visited open space with no facilities”.

Residents in the vicinity of Loma Mar and La Honda have been warned. The was also another lion sighting just north of the park, but it’s not clear if it was one of the lions sighted Sunday.

They hiked on Camp Pomponio Road, which goes through middle of park, and about 10 minutes in, wandered a few hundred yards off the trail, Foy said.

Near a creek, in a clearing at the edge of a densely vegetated area, a mountain lion emerged and walked right up to one of the hikers.

“The hiker shouted aggressively, but the lion did not go away,” Foy said. “So he picked up a big stick and swung at the lion. His brother came to his side and a second lion started closing in.”

Foy said the hiker never struck either cougar but eventually “managed to drive off the lions.”

The hikers then started to return to their car, but looked back and saw the lions were following them. “You could see them the whole time,” one told game wardens. [...]

Although mountain lion attacks are rare, they have become more numerous in the past couple of decades. According to Fish and Game records, all but three of the confirmed attacks on people in California since 1890 have happened in the past 25 years.

The increase coincided with state voters’ approval of a 1990 initiative designating mountain lions as a protected species, even though they were not threatened or endangered. The lions filled existing habitat and then expanded their range, at the same time the human population was moving farther into previously open space.

 

 

Comments

Comment 1 by Anneliese Ågren  on  Feb 14  at  9:15am  •  All my comments • 

The men walked off trail.  Game Warden Foy called the lions “aggressive.”  Steinstra feels the need to point out that the most attacks have occurred in the past 25 years and implies that lions didn’t earn their protected status because they were not threatened nor endangered.

The photo on this news post looks to be more of a mugshot which furthers a representation of the California cougar as a criminal at large.

It’s a crime to be a mountain lion in our culture, with only a death sentence to receive once caught.  How is it that the original California natives lived with not only mountain lions, but also grizzly bears, for 10,000 years, but our people eradicate the grizzly from the state within 100 years of living here and are well on our way to eliminating the cougar too?

Please don’t live in fear with killing as the only solution.  Get educated about the lion behavior.  Be smart when walking on trails or off trails.  Become an advocate to protect our bits of remaining open space.  Allow the lion its right to life.  http://www.mountainlion.org/

 

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Poetry Night at HMB Library, Fri, Sept 10

Letter by Joe Toschik on Wed, Sep 1 at 07:41 pm • 0 comments; click to add your own

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