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Is it time to start dealing with mountain lion threat?
Joel Hood -- Modesto Bee
December 18, 2002
They are the ghosts of California's wilderness. Mountain lions seemingly come and go without recognition, moving silently through the brush in search of food. Most casual hunters and day hikers go years between sightings, and even then it may be for only a moment.
But as humans continue to encroach on the mountain lion's habitat, the threat of confrontation increases.
A Turlock resident found that out in November while hunting in the Diablo Range foothills in Stanislaus County.
Russell Souza, 35, sustained a claw wound on his left elbow and scratches on his chest and shoulder before freeing himself. Souza then shot and killed the animal before turning it over to Department of Fish and Game officials.
Because Souza was acting in self-defense, the DFG did not charge him with poaching. But it's illegal to kill a mountain lion in almost every other circumstance in California, a law that makes some uneasy and others frustrated.
Attacks on humans are rare, but DFG research suggests they are on the rise, prompting some to question whether California should continue its blanket protection of the state's top predator.
"Like any resource, you have to manage it," Modesto hunting outfitter Craig Hueter said. "The way it's going is a bad deal. And it's only going to get worse unless something is done about it."
There always has been a romanticism associated with the mountain lion, largely because of its stealth.
But it hasn't always been protected. Between 1900 and 1969, a period when mountain lions were actively hunted for bounty, records indicate there were fewer than 3,000 living in the wild.
In 1972, a statewide moratorium was placed on sport hunting of mountain lions to increase their numbers. It worked, and by 1988 there were an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 roaming California's foothills.
The increase, experts say, was directly related to the mountain lion's protected status. But in 1990, California voters took it a step further and passed Proposition 117, a law that designated the mountain lion as a "specially protected mammal," the only species in the state to receive that label.
Lynn Sadler -- the executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, an offshoot of the organization that drafted Prop. 117 -- said the initiative was designed to protect the mountain lion's status as the top predator in the wild.
"It's the keystone of the ecosystem," Sadler said. "Mountain lions do a good job of regulating their own population levels. But because (the DFG) has never really known what the levels are, combined with the fact that 100 percent of mountain lion hunting was for sport, there was a belief among voters that it needed protection."
But Prop. 117 meant that mountain lions were afforded the same protection given to threatened or endangered species. And in addition to prohibiting lion killing unless they threatened livestock, pets or humans, the law removed the DFG's power to control the population.
Previously, the DFG could kill mountain lions to reduce the threat to sheep or deer, to keep resources plentiful or to limit contact with humans.
"The mountain lion can no longer be managed," wildlife biologist Holman King said. "All we can do is abide by the proposition, which is completely reactionary. We cannot take preventative measures when it comes to mountain lions.
"It's strictly about politics. It's no longer under the constraints of biological law."
According to the DFG, there have been seven mountain lion attacks since 1992, not including Souza's incident in November.
Pam Swift, the DFG veterinarian who examined the lion that attacked Souza, determined the animal was significantly underweight and probably attacked out of starvation. The absence of fat deposits, Swift said, indicated the lion failed at getting food for months.
Swift's findings speak to the larger question of whether mountain lions in some regions have exhausted their resources and what effect that might have on the unfortunate person who wanders past them.
Most western states -- including Montana, Nevada and Colorado -- allow mountain lion hunting. Their respective fish and game departments regulate the hunts as they would deer, waterfowl or big game. That is why those states have been able to maintain their lion populations, said Chris Healy, public information officer with the Nevada Division of Wildlife.
"We estimate there are about 4,000 mountain lions (in Nevada), and that number has stayed about the same even though we've always been allowed to hunt them," Healy said. "What we have discovered is that during the fall when yearlings are born, there is a substantial increase in lions in that area. What happens then is that they will take each other on.
"If not for the harvest program we have, there is no question they would be more aggressive and more dangerous."
Hueter said it's time to do what's best for hunters and mountain lions.
"The problem is that in California their habitat is slowly disappearing," Hueter said. "The number of lions is going up while their acres are going down. Something has to be done to protect them and us. So many of those who voted (for Prop. 117) live in the city and never see mountains lions.
"They don't understand the threat."
Joel Hood -- Modesto Bee
December 18, 2002
They are the ghosts of California's wilderness. Mountain lions seemingly come and go without recognition, moving silently through the brush in search of food. Most casual hunters and day hikers go years between sightings, and even then it may be for only a moment.
But as humans continue to encroach on the mountain lion's habitat, the threat of confrontation increases.
A Turlock resident found that out in November while hunting in the Diablo Range foothills in Stanislaus County.
Russell Souza, 35, sustained a claw wound on his left elbow and scratches on his chest and shoulder before freeing himself. Souza then shot and killed the animal before turning it over to Department of Fish and Game officials.
Because Souza was acting in self-defense, the DFG did not charge him with poaching. But it's illegal to kill a mountain lion in almost every other circumstance in California, a law that makes some uneasy and others frustrated.
Attacks on humans are rare, but DFG research suggests they are on the rise, prompting some to question whether California should continue its blanket protection of the state's top predator.
"Like any resource, you have to manage it," Modesto hunting outfitter Craig Hueter said. "The way it's going is a bad deal. And it's only going to get worse unless something is done about it."
There always has been a romanticism associated with the mountain lion, largely because of its stealth.
But it hasn't always been protected. Between 1900 and 1969, a period when mountain lions were actively hunted for bounty, records indicate there were fewer than 3,000 living in the wild.
In 1972, a statewide moratorium was placed on sport hunting of mountain lions to increase their numbers. It worked, and by 1988 there were an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 roaming California's foothills.
The increase, experts say, was directly related to the mountain lion's protected status. But in 1990, California voters took it a step further and passed Proposition 117, a law that designated the mountain lion as a "specially protected mammal," the only species in the state to receive that label.
Lynn Sadler -- the executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, an offshoot of the organization that drafted Prop. 117 -- said the initiative was designed to protect the mountain lion's status as the top predator in the wild.
"It's the keystone of the ecosystem," Sadler said. "Mountain lions do a good job of regulating their own population levels. But because (the DFG) has never really known what the levels are, combined with the fact that 100 percent of mountain lion hunting was for sport, there was a belief among voters that it needed protection."
But Prop. 117 meant that mountain lions were afforded the same protection given to threatened or endangered species. And in addition to prohibiting lion killing unless they threatened livestock, pets or humans, the law removed the DFG's power to control the population.
Previously, the DFG could kill mountain lions to reduce the threat to sheep or deer, to keep resources plentiful or to limit contact with humans.
"The mountain lion can no longer be managed," wildlife biologist Holman King said. "All we can do is abide by the proposition, which is completely reactionary. We cannot take preventative measures when it comes to mountain lions.
"It's strictly about politics. It's no longer under the constraints of biological law."
According to the DFG, there have been seven mountain lion attacks since 1992, not including Souza's incident in November.
Pam Swift, the DFG veterinarian who examined the lion that attacked Souza, determined the animal was significantly underweight and probably attacked out of starvation. The absence of fat deposits, Swift said, indicated the lion failed at getting food for months.
Swift's findings speak to the larger question of whether mountain lions in some regions have exhausted their resources and what effect that might have on the unfortunate person who wanders past them.
Most western states -- including Montana, Nevada and Colorado -- allow mountain lion hunting. Their respective fish and game departments regulate the hunts as they would deer, waterfowl or big game. That is why those states have been able to maintain their lion populations, said Chris Healy, public information officer with the Nevada Division of Wildlife.
"We estimate there are about 4,000 mountain lions (in Nevada), and that number has stayed about the same even though we've always been allowed to hunt them," Healy said. "What we have discovered is that during the fall when yearlings are born, there is a substantial increase in lions in that area. What happens then is that they will take each other on.
"If not for the harvest program we have, there is no question they would be more aggressive and more dangerous."
Hueter said it's time to do what's best for hunters and mountain lions.
"The problem is that in California their habitat is slowly disappearing," Hueter said. "The number of lions is going up while their acres are going down. Something has to be done to protect them and us. So many of those who voted (for Prop. 117) live in the city and never see mountains lions.
"They don't understand the threat."
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