Cougar (Puma concolor)
About Cougars
This content will include a relatively brief overview of the species' ecology, distribution, ecological status, management status, etc.
News
CALIFORNIA ENACTS UNPRECEDENTED RESTRICTIONS ON RAT POISONS IN BID TO PROTECT WILDLIFE [LOS ANGELES TIMES - OCTOBER 1, 2024]
Posted on October 3, 2024
"California has become the first state in the nation to restrict use of all blood-thinning rat poisons due to their unintended effect on mountain lions, birds of prey and other animals."
"A 2023 California Department of Fish and Wildlife report found that roughly 88% of raptors and 90% of pumas tested were exposed to the poisons."
Photo Credit: from the Los Angeles Times article.
A MOUNTAIN LION KILLED 1, INJURED 1 IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. HOW COMMON ARE THESE ATTACKS? [SACRAMENTO BEE - MARCH 31, 2024]
Commentary by Tom Skeele, CCC
Posted on March 25, 2024
When “walking where the wild things are,” never say "never" about the possibility of being attacked by a large predator. Sure, the odds of this happening are greater in a place like Yellowstone than Yosemite. But it doesn’t mean we humans can’t get attacked, and even killed, by one of the resident carnivores even when the place feels less “wild.”
Such is the case for a twenty-one-year-old fella who this weekend got killed by a mountain lion in the El Dorado National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California about fifty miles northeast of Sacramento. His brother was also attacked, but is expected to survive. Both were looking for antlers that had recently been shed on these public lands. Meanwhile, the cougar has been tracked down and killed.
Two thoughts came to my mind when I read the news about this highly unfortunate incident.
First, such an event can give cause to lots of human hysteria, even as the facts speak to how very unusual this event is (the last fatal cougar attack in California was 2004). As the Sequoia National Forest, also located in the Sierra Nevada mountains, explains: “Mountain lions are typically solitary and elusive. Studies of collared mountain lions show that they often co-exist around people, unseen and unheard.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has a web page titled “Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks,” which highlights how there have been twenty-two lion attacks in the state since 1986, of which three have been fatal. You can find that web page here:
https://wildlife.ca.gov/Con.../Mammals/Mountain-Lion/Attacks
My second thought was about a conversation I had with Rick Ridgeway back in 2000 regarding an article he was working on for National Geographic Adventure, titled “Walking Where the Wild Things Are.” For those unfamiliar with Rick, he is an outdoor adventurer, writer and advocate for sustainability and conservation initiatives who for fifteen years was Patagonia’s VP for Environmental Initiatives.
I had explained to Rick that during my four years in Yosemite (circa ‘84-88), I could walk for hours in those Sierra wildlands without ever thinking about the fact I was in the home range of a large carnivore that could attack, and potentially kill, me. I juxtaposed that to my fifteen years living close to Yellowstone, where the presence of carnivores capable of killing me seldom escaped my mind – especially while hiking in those wildlands. Rick used my experiences as a way to highlight his point that there is a difference between "wilderness" and "wildness." As he wrote in his piece, “In an area of true wildness, all the animals are in place - all the predators and all the prey.”
However, even though the Sierra Nevada mountains (and California more broadly) no longer has grizzly bears, it still has large predators that can cause physical harm, even death, to humans. So, while I believe it’s fair for Rick Ridgeway (or anyone else) to say the wildlands of California are not as truly wild as those of the Northern Rockies, never say “never” about the possibility of being attacked, and potentially killed, by a cougar – even if the place has less of a sense of “wildness” to it.
Photo Credit: from the Sacramento Bee article.