When I used to walk alone on the trails in nearby Tilden Park, I always carried rocks in my pocket just in case. Though I’ve never seen one, I knew I was in mountain lion territory. With each stirring in the brush I imagined a lion resting on its powerful haunches fixing me in its steady, yellow gaze. Rather than a pocket full of pebbles, I would have been better off wearing a human mask on the back of my head like the Bengali woodcutters who know that tigers and lions are apt to attack from behind.
The unexpected appearance of a mountain lion during the early morning hours in the North Berkeley shopping district jarred even the unaware into sudden lion awareness. Of course, lions have always roamed our neighborhoods in the hills. And if someone hadn’t spotted the lion in the early morning hours downtown, it probably would have made its way back unseen into the hills before daybreak.
The outcome was predictably sad. The police had no training in dealing with a large wild animal like a mountain lion, and deciding it might be dangerous, shot and killed it. And even if the lion could have been tranquilized or netted, reintroducing it into the wildlands usually is unsuccessful. If it was not in its ‘neighborhood’ the lion most likely would not have been welcomed by the resident male and would have been driven off or attacked and killed.
A necropsy revealed that the lion was an immature male maybe seeking out a new territory or while chasing a deer had become disoriented.
One of several signs posted by The Hall regarding recent mountain lion activity.
A couple of weeks later a female lion and her cubs were spotted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Strawberry Canyon. Not only were the lions themselves seen by several people but several kills were discovered. All were deer, the lions’ preferred prey, except for a goat which was one of the herd brought in each year to eat down grasses and brush to reduce wildfire fuel. Someone even shot a grainy photo of the two cubs on a stairway.
Heeding the public dismay over the downtown mountain lion killing, the Lab called in wildlife biologist Jim Hale to offer some perspective on living with mountain lions. Hale reassured the Lab personnel that mountain lions choose to avoid human contact and that people are rarely attacked and even more rarely killed (less than sixteen in California in over a hundred years with only six fatalities).
But still there is something riveting about the presence of a big predator which, now that wolves and bears have long ago been extirpated, is the top of the food chain. Deer, mountain lions’ favored prey, continue to increase in number, drawn into suburban (and even urban) gardens by an abundance of well-watered and fertilized plants. And where there are deer, the lions will follow. With lion habitat shrinking as our towns and cities expand into open country, we can count on more sightings and incidents like the occasional snatching of a domestic animal.
Fear of a big predator like a mountain lion lies deep in our bones. What we fear we are apt to destroy. Understanding lions and their habits is important for the lions’ survival and for us, life-enriching knowledge. But as Hale states in a November article in the SF Chronicle we need to have a plan for dealing with human-lion encounters including procedures and guidelines for the first responders (wildlife biologists, law enforcement officers, state game wardens etc.) so that some of the wayward lions can safely return to open space.
Lions are solitary wide-ranging animals. A male lion requires a range of at least 150-square miles which is why Hale is so intent on the preservation and conservation of the last remaining greenbelts that link our Bay Area open spaces. He points out that one important local corridor is the strip of park land that crosses over the Caldecott Tunnel linking the northern regional parks with the southern ones.
Not much is known about either the numbers or the wanderings of the East Bay mountain lion population. But that may soon change when the Bay Area Puma Project, founded by Zara MacDonald, begins monitoring the population in the East Bay.
Puma is one of the many names for the mountain lion whose names are almost as numerous as the locations where mountain lions are found. Cougar, puma, mountain cat, catamount, panther are just a few.
Mountain lions are adaptable to almost every habitat but prefer dense underbrush and precipitous canyons like the stream canyon below Lawrence Hall of Science. Mountain lions, with the largest range of any wild land animal in the Americas, are found from the northern Yukon to the southern Andes. There is evidence that mountain lions are repopulating the Eastern United States where they were long ago extirpated.
Last fall Zara Macdonald, at the invitation of rikki Shakelford, showed her excellent traveling PowerPoint show accompanied by her informed commentary to the LHS staff. When asking if anyone had ever seen a mountain lion, rikki, who runs the LHS teen program and himself a wildlife biologist, was the only one to raise his hand.
Blackberry Canyon, prime lion habitat.
The Puma Project which is part of Felidae Conservation Fund has been working in the Santa Cruz Mountains where researchers have tranquilized adult lions and fitted them with collars which generate GPS-accelerometer data on locations and body motions of an individual lion. From this data maps are drawn showing key habitats and corridors—information critical to the preservation of the species.
Since the recent sightings, both the Lab and LHS have posted pictures of a mountain lion with the admonition “not to walk or jog alone in the wild lands or at dawn, dusk, or at night. And if you encounter a lion, face the animal, make noise and to try to look bigger. If attacked, fight back.”
Though California is the only state not allowing hunting of the mountain lion, more lions are killed when crossing roads and by the issuance of depredation permits (issued by Fish and Game when livestock or pets are attacked).
A California without this noble animal—this keystone species upon which our natural world is hinged—is unthinkable. The poet D.H. Lawrence in his haunting poem about a mountain lion killing in the New Mexico wilderness writes:
“And I think in this empty world there was room
for me and a mountain lion.
And I think in the world beyond, how easily we
might spare a million or two of humans
And never miss them.
Yet what a gap in the world, the missing white
frost-face of that slim yellow mountain lion!”
—Phila Rogers
Lion Stats
Average life expectancy: 8–10 years
Size: Most adults weigh 80 to 150 pounds, the females smaller than the males.
Tracings of tracks at nearby Briones Park, made by wildlife biologist Jim Hart.
(click to enlarge)
Cougar Tracking information.
(click to enlarge)
Numbers: Fish and Game estimates there are between 4000-6000 mountain lions in California but many researchers believe the number is far less.
Reproduction: Litter size averages 2-4 cubs. The young stay with the mother for up to two years while she teaches them to hunt.
Color: Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are reddish in color in the Bay Area, but in some habitats are silvery. Young lions have blue eyes which later change to yellow.
Food habits: Mountain lions are obligate carnivores feeding only on meat though size of prey is determined by availability.
Physical attributes: Mountain lions have the largest hind legs in the cat family. They can leap 12 feet from a standing position. Though capable of fast, short sprints they are not long-distance runners which is why they can be treed by pursuing dogs.
Voice: Unlike other ‘big cats,’ they lack the specialized larynx which allows them to roar. They hiss, purr, chirp, whistle and produce memorable screams.
Paw prints: Because of the elusive nature of mountain lions, you are most apt to see prints marking their passage. They can be distinguished by their large size, and unlike dog prints show no claw marks (cats have retractable claws).
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