Living With Lions

By Bill Schneider, 3-02-06

In late February, a man named Bill Hill created quite a stir in southern California when he shot a mountain lion. The California press gave the incident serious play, and it even earned a full page in USA Today.

Hill, a former police officer who lives fifty miles southeast of Los Angeles, claimed to be protecting his family (and children in a nearby elementary school) when he opened up on a young male cougar lounging on a backyard wall, but the public displayed little gratitude or sympathy for Hill’s family or concern for nearby school children. Instead, most people wanted him charged with killing a protected species, which under California law could slap Hill with a year in jail and a $10,000 fine.

As in so many wildlife controversies, the furor tends to conceal the real issues. In California, already with growing numbers of mountain lions, the loss of one young male is unlikely to have much impact on the population. More pertinent issues are what was Hill doing in the lion’s backyard and what could be done to prevent such incidents.

In most western states, the loss of one mountain lion would not earn full-page stores in national newspapers, but California is the only western state completely protecting lions. In 1990, voters passed a ballot initiative that banned hunting, and in 1997, they defeated an attempted repeal.

The conflict between lions and humankind has been focused in California, which has had fifteen documented attacks, six of them fatal. Hill shot the lion only a few miles from where a mountain lion attacked and killed a man while he was bent over working on his mountain bike in 2004. A few hours later, the same lion jumped a female mountain biker on the same trail. She survived the traumatic incident but was seriously disfigured.

But this is not a California issue. Throughout the New West, people are doing exactly what Bill Hill did; building houses in the mountain lion habitat, so the potential for conflict increases daily. Even though mountain lions are hunted in most western states (except Texas which allows indiscriminate killing), populations have not suffered. The big cat is, in fact, doing just fine in most places.

When you have lots of prey, you usually have lots of predators. We have lots of lions because we have lots of deer, which is by far the cat’s most common prey species. With urban and suburban deer populations exploding, lions throughout the West have been making a good living on the urban interface, where there is no hunting. The mountain lion operates like any other predator. It likes places where it can find food and be secure from hunters.

The many thousands of people living on the city’s edge in every western state should think lions—with a focus on preventing circumstances that could lead to loss of human life and almost certainly lead to dead lions. This is so much better than waiting for an incident to hit the front page and then rush to criticize.

Here are some basics of living with lions, mostly courtesy of the 2004 book, Lion Sense, by California Department of Fish and Game lion expert Steve Torres.

The first order of business for people considering a move to the urban fringe is the realization that they’re moving into a lion’s backyard. Many people make the move and then realize they have an apex predator as a neighbor. If you have urban deer in your neighborhood (which most do), you most likely have mountain lions coming in at night or at dawn and dusk looking for them. To avoid conflict and protect your family, pets and property, follow these safety guidelines:

1. Don’t let children, who are most vulnerable to attack, play unsupervised at dawn, dusk or at night.

2. If deer concentrate in your area, expect mountain lion activity to be especially high. .

3. Do not purposely attract deer or other potential prey animals, such as raccoons, to your property by providing food or salt licks, which might also attract mountain lions.

4. Open up areas around your house that you or your pets frequent by clearing dense, shrubby vegetation. (Also good advice for reducing the threat from forest fires.)

5. Landscape your yard with native plants that do not attract deer.

6. If your garden attracts deer, consider building deer-proof fencing.

7. Keep play areas for children or pets visible from the house.

8. Install outdoor lighting in areas that pets or your family may frequent at night. No need to light up your property like an auto mall, just add subtle lighting in appropriate areas.

9. Do not let children or pets roam at dawn, dusk, or during the night. Mountain lions frequently kill and eat cats and dogs of all breeds.

10. Keep livestock in a secure area at night, such as a barn or shed.

11. Do not leave out garbage that may attract potential prey animals such as raccoons or opossums. Mountain lions prey on a variety of small mammals active at night.

12. Teach family members, especially children, how to behave if they encounter a mountain lion. Refer to Torres book for more details, but briefly, make sure loved ones don’t panic or run from the lion, whi9h could cause a predatory reaction. Don’t approach the lion. Instead, slowly back away. Don’t be submissive. Talk or yell loudly and regularly. Appear larger by raising your arms above your head and slowly waving them back and forth or wave a jacket or other object. Never bend over or appear smaller and more “prey-like.” Adults should pick up children. If attacked, try to remain standing and fight back in every way possible. Don’t risk injury trying to save a pet.

13. If you see a mountain lion or have any depredation problems, tell your neighbors and notify the state wildlife agency.

Do all of these things and keep your family, pets and property safe from America’s biggest cat—and keep a few mountain lions alive, too.

Footnote: Refer to an accompanying article about the Living With Wildlife Foundation, a nonprofit group offering a wide array of resources to help you co-exist with lions and other wild animals.
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