Mountain Lions and Fear Growing Out West

[Guest guest]

my absolute fave quote of the day

 

" I don't feel like we're living in a natural wilderness. Nothing about it is

natural, " English said. " I believe the lions need to be managed. "

 

 

umm...huh?!

 

 

Mountain Lions and Fear Growing Out West

 

July 14, 2006 — By Judith Kohler, Associated Press

EVERGREEN, Colo. — Carrie Ann Warner has repeatedly called authorities about

the stalker that has peered into her son's bedroom window at night, killed the

family cat and even chased the family into their home in the wooded hills west

of Denver.

 

The mountain lion has eluded wildlife officers perched on the porch with

shotguns, traps baited with roadkill and even a motion-detection camera fastened

to a pine tree.

 

Six-year-old Schylure told his parents the lion stared into his room " like it

was mad at me. "

 

" We're living in this vale of fear, " said Carrie Ann Warner, whose family has

built a steel enclosure around their back porch. " I've reached my wit's end. I

don't know what to do. "

 

Reports of mountain lions roaming neighborhoods and devouring family pets have

cropped up from suburban Denver to Fort Collins, one of the most heavily

populated stretches in the Rockies. In April, a lion attacked and broke the jaw

of a 7-year-old boy on a trail in Boulder before it was chased off.

 

The following month, witnesses said a mountain lion walked into a Boulder home,

ate a pet cat and the cat's food before being captured. And a man shot and

killed a 130-pound mountain lion that attacked his dog in May outside the

family's home near Buckhorn Canyon in the Arapahoe National Forest.

 

The number of human-lion encounters nationwide has increased from about two each

year in the 1970s to between six and 10, said Paul Beier, a conservation biology

professor at Northern Arizona University.

 

Still, mountain lion fatalities are rare -- only 17 nationwide since 1890. The

last fatal attack is believed to be in January 2004, when a lion killed a

bicyclist in an Orange County, Calif., park.

 

A 2003 book by David Baron, " The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man

and Nature " suggests mountain lions may be learning to look at family pets and

people as potential food.

 

However, wildlife experts insist that, for the most part, the animals are

naturally wary of people. Ken Logan, a nationally recognized mountain lion

biologist, said science doesn't support the premise that lions are starting to

view humans as dinner.

 

There are an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions in Colorado. Hunting,

development and other activities wiped them out in most of the East and Midwest,

though most experts agree they are gradually moving east, prompting North Dakota

and South Dakota to start hunting seasons.

 

Wildlife officers are trying to educate people about how to get along with the

big cats as development pushes farther into the canyons and pine-studded hills

the animals once had to themselves.

 

" These are intelligent animals, " Logan said. " They can learn to live around

humans. "

 

But some Colorado residents say they're living in fear of the mountain lions,

which can weigh as much as 180 pounds.

 

Tracey English no longer allows her teenage son to jog by himself in a nearby

open space and her dog stays inside unless it's being walked on a leash. Last

month a mountain lion was captured in a trap in her backyard.

 

" I don't feel like we're living in a natural wilderness. Nothing about it is

natural, " English said. " I believe the lions need to be managed. "

 

Jon Silver says he has caught rare glimpses of mountain lions in the nearly 30

years he has lived west of Boulder, and warns the people living on his rental

properties.

 

" It's just a matter of adapting to your surroundings, " Silver said. " If I'm in

Manhattan and it's 11 o'clock at night, maybe I wouldn't be walking down streets

that weren't well lit. "

 

For Silver, adaptation has meant devising a special dog run. His wife's German

shepherd puppy, Me Too, goes outside by running through a doggie door into the

garage, where it enters a door on the floor, scampers through a 40-foot

underground tunnel, complete with a light triggered by a sensor, and bursts into

a 24-foot-long chain-link cage.

 

The door over the tunnel closes when the garage door opens so the Silvers can

drive cars in with no problem.

 

" I want to live with wildlife. It's their territory, " Diana Silver said. " But I

also want to protect my dog. "

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

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