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The thing with mountain lions
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From: Oroville Mercury Register (California), February 21, 2005
A pro-hunter's common sense look at California's mountain lions and trophy hunting.
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By Rex Burress
SPECIAL TO THE MERCURY-REGISTER
Mountain lions have been in the news again. "Mountain lion killed in Magalia back yard," was a headline in February. A game warden shot the cat that had been chased up a tree by a Springer spaniel. Evidently little thought had been given to allowing the life-loving creature to descend and go its way. "He did his job well," the homeowner said after the warden killed the cat with one shot.
Such a scenario, which some would call senseless, is often the case in mountain lion encounters. They range widely, and human habitations have been built in much of their habitat. It is remarkable that more sightings aren't made, giving an indication of the cat's shy nocturnal nature as well as their population numbers and food preference. About a dozen a year are legally killed in conflicts with livestock, but involvement with people are extremely rare. More people die of mosquito bites than by mountain lions, although big cats have the capability to bring down a person or even a pony. So do bacteria.
Admittedly, people who occupy homes built into mountain lion range don't want their livestock killed or house dog eaten, and they don't want to go to the trouble of putting vulnerable animals in safe quarters for the night. There are those who would thrill at the sight of a mountain lion and consider it a privilege to see a big game animal that may one day be extinct. Less and less space is allowed for large animals all over the earth, and many may go the way of the dinosaurs.
Such was the case back in 1972 when mountain lions were approaching extinction in California along the same pathway that our State Official Animal - the Grizzly Bear that graces the California flag, also lost out and became extinct in the state. I joined the 1972 moratorium effort being made to Save the Mountain Lion, did the illustration for their flyers, and it was successful with Gov. Ronald Reagan signing the bill in 1972.
Just like many American treaties, there is danger of protection once again being diluted to allow hunting of mountain lions via a bill by Assemblyman Bill Maze, R-Visalia, to permit 116 cats to be killed by hunters. Protection was garnered by the people's passage of Proposition 117 in 1990 establishing a permanent ban on hunting mountain lions. Nothing is assured these days. A new bill can knock off previous legislation, prodded by prodigious numbers of lobbyists, and in this case, sportsmen. Having "lion dogs" and assembling a hunt is big business. Why? You can't eat a mountain lion, and their stuffed heads on a wall look particularly pathetic. Regardless of the assertion that lions are killing excessive deer, they extend a balance to keep habitat from being over-browsed and thin out diseased individuals.
Although I am pro-hunter, to the extent I believe the harvest of surplus animals is good conservation, and that sportsmen promote habitat, mountain lions are something special deserving special recognition of protection. Often it is the gesture that counts. How many are there in the state? Not even state biologists know, guessing maybe 5,000. Hardly anyone ever sees them, but just knowing they exist puts a certain flavor of the wild in the out-of-doors.
It is not commendable if mankind shoves aside natural inhabitants of an environment in order to assert dominance or control of the landscape. Everything shares this planet. Real estate demands have endangered nearly every community of its open space and wildlife. It is with difficulty that parks can be established, and even then they are nibbled away in the name of economy. John Muir said "These temple-destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the Mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar." In a tone industry hates, he also said, "The battle for conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
Sierra Club members, especially, have a high stake in this issue. After all, the mountain lion is the very symbol of the wild and free as found in the mountains, especially the Sierras. We treasure our mountain trails and the associated realm of nature, and how many people have been attacked or imperiled by mountain lions as they trudge along dim trails? I feel safer in the hills than on roads.
In all of my outdoor ramblings, I have seen only one mountain lion. I had walked down the Diversion Pool Trail below Oroville Dam, and when I turned to go back by Glen Pond, a mountain lion ran out into the road and went speeding away in the opposite direction, long tail whipping the air. I ran after it, calling for it to pause for a picture, but it would have none of man the dangerous one and fled into the brush. I felt fortune for that brief encounter and felt no threat from its presence.