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Author
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Topic: Mtn.Lions
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Steve Craig
Lacks Opposable Thumbs/what's up with that?
Member # 12
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posted August 05, 2008 03:02 PM
Development threatens mountain lions
By Julia Scott
San Mateo County Times
07/19/2008
A mountain lion is chased up a tree in downtown Palo Alto. Another one is shot after mauling a Chihuahua at a Watsonville mobile home park. In Los Gatos, a lion hits a car while trying to cross Summit Road.
Peninsula and Silicon Valley residents rarely ponder the lives of mountain lions trying to survive in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But urban development — the razing of habitat for homes, roads and parking lots — is the chief obstacle the wild cats face every day as they hunt for deer and fulfill their instinct to roam hundreds of miles, looking for new territory.
Such close encounters are a sign that mountain lions, which can require up to 200 square miles of uninterrupted range, are increasingly hemmed in by development.
"We haven't provided cougars in the Santa Cruz range many opportunities to completely avoid humans. You can't go very far without crossing a road. This fragmentation has affected how cougars are trying to use the landscape up there," said Rick Hopkins, a San Jose-based wildlife consultant who has been tracking the movements of mountain lions for 30 years.
Ever resilient, mountain lions cope with these difficulties by cutting across backyards and attempting to leap across highways, paddle down rivers, or squeeze through drainage culverts underneath busy roads. Occasionally, one will take a wrong turn and get shot for wandering through a town like Palo Alto.
Nobody knows how many mountain lions exist in the Santa Cruz Mountains — most estimates put the number between 30 and 40, based on the fact that available mountain habitat covers about 780 square miles, the smallest continuous habitat zone in a mountain range south of Marin. The rugged Northern Diablo Range, just across the Bay, is three times the size of the Santa Cruz range and historically rich in both mountain lions and their prey, owing to far fewer development pressures.
Mountain lions can exist anywhere that mule deer, their main prey, abound, and they are plentiful in the Santa Cruz range. But the lion population will decline if they are cut off from other mountain ranges, say experts. In-breeding can lead to serious genetic deformities within two generations of being severed from the rest of the lion world.
Professor Jim Thorne, a wildlife habitat ecologist at University of California, Davis, believes that could happen some day. Using modeling based on known mountain lion habitat and movement patterns, Thorne has identified the two remaining crucial connection points, or "corridors," the lions need to use to get from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the rest of the state: Coyote Valley north of Morgan Hill, which connects the Santa Cruz and Northern Diablo Mountain ranges; and the Pajaro Valley, whose river bisects the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Gabilan Mountains near Watsonville.
Following this trail, a determined mountain lion could reach the Tehachapi Mountains, which connects the Coast Range with the southern end of the Sierra Nevadas.
Thorne fears these two areas could both disappear under subdivisions if they are not protected now. A recent plan to build 26,000 homes and a mixed-use office park in Coyote Valley was withdrawn in March when it seemed clear the San Jose City Council might not support it, but other development proposals are in the making. The Pajaro Valley is two-thirds agricultural fields but has no permanent development exemptions or protected open space.
"The likely issue is that there probably isn't enough space on the Peninsula to have a population that is self-maintaining genetically speaking, without having space to come and leave and mix with other populations," said Thorne. "There's enough roads springing up that the Santa Cruz Mountains are in danger of being isolated from the rest of California, at least from the perspective of a mountain lion."
For a sense of what that vision might entail, a person need look no further than the Santa Monica Mountains, a slightly larger range that was long ago cut off from the rest of the state, habitat-wise, with the construction of Highway 101. Officials with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area estimate that five mountain lions, at most, continue to exist there — less than half the number they have known of since 2002. Some lions killed each other, and some were hit trying to cross the highway, said Seth Riley, a park wildlife ecologist.
"It's safe to say there not too many others, because of the space in the Santa Monica Mountains and the fact that males don't tolerate each other very well," said Riley. "If there's no connectivity across the 101, I think it would essentially be a matter of time before they would be lost."
Park officials are now working with the California Department of Transportation to build a highway underpass, just for the mountain lions, that would connect with the Simi Hills to the north.
The first effort to count the number of mountain lions in the Santa Cruz range, as well as record their health and habits, got off the ground last year at the University of California, Santa Cruz. With the help of a trapper, the Bay Area Puma Project will collar and track ten pumas at a time as they make their way across the mountain range and points beyond.
The information is crucial because no one knows which roads the lions are crossing or where, said professor Chris Wilmers, lead researcher for the Puma Project. Perhaps Caltrans could help build something to help an animal navigate those areas, too.
"It would be nice to figure out where the core habitat areas are so they can be preserved with management strategies that help the mountain lions survive in those areas," said Wilmers.
For its part, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has been studying the issue of mountain lion habitat corridors since May and has formally adopted a policy of making sure wildlife crossing sites, including roads and nature trails, will be made as safe as possible for the lions.
"It's our intention that there will be mountain lions out there forever. The main thing we can do now is save land from being developed," said Cindy Roessler, resource management specialist for the open space district.
The district already has some clues about which of their properties the lions are most partial to among the 550 square miles it owns in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Roessler describes 13 confirmed mountain lion sightings over the past six years — most of them at the Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, just north of Palo Alto city limits, and the Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve just a few miles southwest from there in San Mateo County. Both properties boast big, open grasslands and dark, mixed-conifer forests.
Taking her lead from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Julie Philipps doesn't think the Coyote Valley will be spared from development until part of the land is purchased by a public agency. The De Anza Community College environmental studies professor ovsersees the Wildlife Corridor Stewardship Program, in which students are helping to prove how valuable the area is as a passageway for all kinds of animals, from bobcats to birds, as they move from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Diablo Range and back again.
The fact that the area supports large animals like mountain lions is a miracle in itself, since they already have to pick their way across a maze of cultivated fields and property fences before finding a culvert large enough to carry them under Highway 101. Experts say mountain lions will not attempt to pass through lots that are smaller than 40 acres.
"They (the developers) said Highway 101 was already a barrier to wildlife movement, but we put up video cameras and saw animals walking though culverts under Highway 101 at night. It's incredible. I just think it shows how resilient wildlife is," said Philipps.
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Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction. - Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 442 | From: Cottonwood,Az, USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 05, 2008 03:47 PM
quote:
"They (the developers) said Highway 101 was already a barrier to wildlife movement, but we put up video cameras and saw animals walking though culverts under Highway 101 at night. It's incredible. I just think it shows how resilient wildlife is," said Philipps.
The only accurate piece of information from the hand wringing "experts". Now, we not only have to preserve habitat, we need to link habitat with corridors for biological diversity. A crock of shit, but hey, it must be true if it comes from a "scientist"?
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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MULE
Knows what it's all about
Member # 63
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posted August 05, 2008 04:20 PM
One entered some peoples house and killed thier Golden retriever in the freaking BEDROOM!!
And this was only 14 miles from Denver
It happened a day or two ago
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Kickin' it on the Steppes. Livin' in my Yurt
My Hockey Mom can beat up your Community Organizer
Posts: 334 | From: Ulan Bator | Registered: Jan 2003
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MULE
Knows what it's all about
Member # 63
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posted August 05, 2008 04:25 PM
Sorry, it was a LAB that was eaten
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/05/mountain-lion-snatches-dog-owners-bedroom-idledale/
Bedrooms aren't safe in mountain lion country, not if the doors are left open, an Idledale couple discovered to their sorrow on Monday.
A hungry male mountain lion spied an easy meal at their home early Monday and walked right into their bedroom to get it.
The French doors that open to the back yard from the bedroom of the house were ajar, and the 130-pound adult cougar came right in and grabbed the family's beloved 12-year-old yellow Labrador.
Idledale is about 14 miles southwest of Denver, near Morrison in Jefferson County.
It was a scene of domestic bliss, the husband and wife sleeping in the master bedroom, and the couple's two dogs also asleep in the room, Jennifer Churchill, spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife said this morning.
"It was about 4:30 in the morning," she said. "The gal awoke to a sound, got up out of bed, and saw something about a foot away from her.
"She said to her husband, 'There's an animal in here.'"
That's when the mountain lion grabbed the female yellow Labrador and ran out the door.
The lion then displayed typical cougar behavior, eating part of the dog, but then hiding it beneath some pine needles so he could come back and eat the rest later.
The couple agreed to let wildlife officers use the dog's carcass as bait, so a trap was concocted.
"The cougar did come back," and was trapped, Churchill said.
While it's not unusual for a mountain lion to enter neighborhoods to seek an easy meal, the fact that this one went right into a house, in fact, into a bedroom, meant that he likely would be a danger to other residents, she said.
So, this morning, wildlife officers killed the cougar.
Now, it's on its way to Fort Collins where veterinarians will examine its body to see if it had any diseases or anything else that might explain its aberrant behavior, Churchill said.
The mountain lion ignored the humans and the other dog in the bedroom, which isn't a surprise, Churchill said.
"When lions go after something, they're pretty single-minded," she said. "They generally zero in on things that are vulnerable. They want what they're going after. They're not distracted by other animals.
"They kill to eat."
Mountain lions prefer deer, elk and other fellow wildlife, but aren't above snatching an easier meal in a backyard, no matter how much that meal is loved by the humans who care for it.
The family "is pretty traumatized," and doesn't want to talk publicly about the incident, she said. "They're upset they lost their beloved pet."
Churchill cautioned people who live in the foothills or anywhere in mountain lion habitat "to be extra cautious with yourself and your pets."
"Keep the doors closed, keep the pets close by. Be aware of what's around you. Make noise.
"Put in motion lights" to startle wild animals that enter the yard.
Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News
Comments
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Kickin' it on the Steppes. Livin' in my Yurt
My Hockey Mom can beat up your Community Organizer
Posts: 334 | From: Ulan Bator | Registered: Jan 2003
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skoal
Knows what it's all about
Member # 1492
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posted August 05, 2008 04:25 PM
Experts say mountain lions will not attempt to pass through lots that are smaller than 40 acres.
Dammit my lot is only 38.42 acres guess that leaves me out unless theres some affirmitive action mtn lions out there that dont know thier acreage.
Gotta love the experts.
PM
Posts: 251 | From: desert s.w. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
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posted August 13, 2008 04:17 PM
If anyone really enjoys reading about mountain lion attacks both fatal and non-fatal, like I do, read "Cougar Attacks". I bought it at Sportsmans warehouse. Its a very hard book to put down.
I love to fight with our large domestic cat. The worst of it is usually a few semi-long scratches on my arm. Now when I play with him I try to imagine him 20 times bigger. Each tooth 20x bigger,, 20x his weight, his claws 20x bigger, SHEESH!!!
Its amazing how in almost every attack those killing machines go straight for the back of your head or neck and sever the spinal cord, or crush the preys windpipe. For a hundred or so pound critter, they sure can inflict a dang lot of damage in just a few seconds of struggle. WOW!
It really is a great book!
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I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
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rainshadow1
Knows what it's all about
Member # 899
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posted August 13, 2008 05:04 PM
Just bought a nice used fridge from a guy, quadrapelegic. Well, Tri-drapelegic, as he can flail one arm around with some dexterity, but can't use the fingers yet. (Car crash.)
Anyway, he was in a likely location, so at the end of the deal I mentioned to him that if they ever have and concerns about Cougars, to let me know...
He told me that last week he had 2 in his yard, one of them trying to jump into his window while he was trying to close it! (He lives on about 10 acres! In amongst a bunch of 5's and 2', all with houses on them, etc.) Can you imagine being in an electric wheelchair, trying to thrash around with one barely working arm, to shut a window while a teenager Lion is trying to jump in there!?!?!
I told him to call me next time he thought something might be in the area, I think maybe he probably will!
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- - Steve
RainShadow Game Calls & Custom Knives
Cougar E-Sound Library, Hand Calls, & Call-In Story Library.
www.rain-shadow.com
Posts: 152 | From: NW Washington | Registered: Jul 2006
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted August 13, 2008 07:21 PM
Steve
If i were him I'd think about mounting a turbo and some fire power on that chair.
Good luck I hope you get a call!
PM
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted October 16, 2008 03:23 PM
BTT (go skoal!)
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted October 16, 2008 04:06 PM
Steve, let me know when you want to get a posse up to go look for Paul. I'm beginng to wonder if Paul got the lion or if the lion got Paul.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8231 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted December 18, 2008 04:43 AM
Paul,
When are you going to post pictures of that lion you shot?
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted December 18, 2008 07:57 AM
As soon as I shoot one , actually I'm leaving on Christmas day for the hills and spend the week attempting to call a lion. Now that I have a little info. on sign and where look for it it should be a real adventure.If it all comes together and actully happens you be asking me to stop posting pictures and and rambling on ,this will be the first place it gets posted.
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 18, 2008 08:10 AM
CAUTION Don't buddy hunt, and don't use buckshot!
The boys in the padded room are eternal village ant. Who needs PETA?
But. Good to hear from you, Paul. I thought the reason you clammed up was because you (gulp)MISSED your lion!
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted December 18, 2008 08:26 AM
I always have a tag its the best insurance against lion attack lol I will be hunting alone.Unless Clint gets a hall pass and that aint likley around Christmas.
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 18, 2008 09:10 AM
So, now we know. It's Clint that helps you out of the truck and sets your chair, points you in the right direction......
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted December 18, 2008 09:54 AM
Thats all true ! Why I cant even remember where the truck is. leme see did we come in truck hmmm what am I doing in this room I know I came in here for something?
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted December 30, 2008 05:45 PM
Well after the storms ended I finally went back up north to see if i could call in a lion.
All the snow was very helpful in locating sign
Finally found some tracks that were very recent in an area where three ridgelines come together.
Steve had shown me what to look for and where for three kinds of scrapes or scratches finally found what looked like a juvenille scrape but the tracks I had found were about 3.5 inches making me think adult.
Found a good place to set up and started calling.
Only used two sounds one distress and one juvenille whistle in hopes of getting a Tom to come in and run off the youngster.
After 28 min. of calling I hear the wierdest bird ever , turns out it must have been a young lion wistling. I hear some noises behind me at about 34 min. So I pause the caller to listen and dont hear anything further. After about 40 min. I cant stand it anymore and look back to the trees behind me , too thick and I cant see anything. I continue calling for about another 10 min. when I go back to the trees behind me I find young lion tracks very clearly where he came and went. I took pics I will post them if I can get them out of the damn adobe program I loaded them into.No lion but a ton of fun the snow really lets you have a good look at traffic you may suspect but never really see , way cool
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Andy L
HI, I'M THE NEW MODERATOR OF THE CENTRAL MISSOURI FORUM, PULL MY FINGER!
Member # 642
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posted December 30, 2008 07:44 PM
damn paul, that is kewl! keep updating, ive always wanted to do that but will have to live through your posts for now.
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Andy
Posts: 2645 | From: Central Missouri | Registered: Apr 2005
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted December 30, 2008 07:45 PM
quote:
...the snow really lets you have a good look at traffic you may suspect but never really see , way cool
Very true.
Pic is from a couple weeks ago. Those are my boot tracks, from walking in to the stand. I sure did not notice those tracks while walking in... Me and my partner both sure DID notice them when we got up to leave though. That pic is from about 10 yards directly behind where Tim was sitting during the stand.
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
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posted December 30, 2008 08:21 PM
Whoa, spooky Dave.
This year for rifle elk, It was barely snowing but had been for a couple of hours. While still dark, I got out of the truck to look at some large tracks going along the trail. I got out to look and see if they were elk tracks, no they were very well defined big cat tracks. They had been coming from the opposite direction and now led off the road and up the hill. I drove on for about 100 yards and decided to get out and take some pictures of them. When I did, I realized that the tracks where I now was, had several of the grainy snow specs in them and the original didn't just 100 yards later.
Perhaps I didn't explain the situation very well but this indicated to me I had just missed the cat by seconds! I'm sure he heard the truck or saw my headlights and moved off the road for me.
The realization was not all that significant to the guys too lazy to get out of the truck, but I just kept thinking how cool it was. Wish I would of looked around in the trees off the road for a glimpse! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 30, 2008 08:58 PM
Hey Danny, this is for you, for that Wewitchu carol!
Here is today's Spanish Lesson:
*Cheese* -- The teacher told Pepito to use the word cheese in a sentence. Pepito replies: Maria likes me, but cheese fat.
*Mushroom* -- When all my family get in the car, there's not mushroom.
*Shoulder* -- My fren wanted to become a citizen but she didn't know how to read so I shoulder.
*Texas * -- My fren always Texas me when I'm not home wondering where I'm at!
*Herpes* -- Me and my fren ordered pizza. I got my piece and she got herpes.
*July* -- Ju told me ju were going to that store and July to me! Julyer!
*Rectum* -- I had 2 cars but my wife rectum!
*Chicken* -- I was going to go to the store with my wife but chicken go herself.
*Wheelchair* -- We only have one enchilada left, but don't worry wheelchair.
*Harassment* -- My wife caught me in bed with another women and I told her, honey harassment nothing to me.
*Bishop* -- My wife fell down the stairs so I had to pick the bishop.
*Body Wash * -- I want to go to the club but no body wash my kids.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32361 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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