[pct-l] Fwd: Re: Mountain Lion Encounter

[Scott Williams]

It may be a habituated lion, or a lion in its favorite hunting ground, or
as in the case of Barbara Schoener the jogger killed not far from Auburn CA
in 1994, a mother with a cub nearby, hence what Muk Muk describes as the
sound of several animals at times.  Jim Bravo, a member of this list for
years, knew Barbara and took me for a hike on the Western States Trail 2
years ago.  He brought me to the site of the kill.  The mother had set her
den up very near that well worn trail and then used the rocks that
sheltered her cub to attack from.  It was the first lion kill in CA in the
20th century.  If it is a mother and cub, you add the maternal instincts of
a great predator to not only feed her young, but to protect them from the
intruders on the trail, making Muk Muk's situation all the more dire.

But as Tony points out, it may also just be a great hunting spot.  Fifteen
years ago or so I was running the ridge in back of my home in Martinez CA
in a heavy rainstorm.  Being a Californian, I revel in the rain when we get
it, but when it finally got too heavy even for me, I headed down the
nearest canyon, off trail, to reach a road and a non muddy return home.
 Half way down I came upon a fresh dear kill.  Cleanly gutted and missing
one haunch, it was literally smoking in the rain it  was so fresh and hot.
 I thought a hunter had shot it and cleaned it, but I hadn't heard the
shot.  Then I noticed the rib cage had teeth marks on it and my hair stood
right up and a chill went down my spine.

I later learned that bears will often stalk lions in order to steal the
lion's kill as they are much better hunters than bears. Lions disturbed
from a kill will tear off a haunch just so as to get something before the
bear drags it away.    Because of our upright posture, we are often
instinctually lumped in with bears by a lion.  I am not quiet when charging
cross country, and crashing down that canyon, I had scared the cat from its
fresh kill and it was probably watching me from behind a tree nearby.  At
least I sure felt I was being watched and it creeped me out.  Further down
the canyon I found 2 more kills, one was a week old and the other several
weeks.  When I returned with the rangers, we found 2 more, all verified
lion kills by the punctures to the skulls.

Needless to say, the canyon I had charged down at runners speed was either
the favorite killing ground, as Tony suggests, or simply a nice quiet spot
this lion had chosen to drag its kills to for a private meal.  This is 1/2
mile from downtown Martinez.  But heck, we've got beavers living right in
downtown.  They've created a lake under Main Street.  The positive upshot
of this was that we proved we had an active lion in our open space and the
California Mountain Lion Association gave the Muir Heritage Land Trust just
under a half million dollars toward the purchase of Sky Ranch, a large
parcel of land they were negotiating at the time not far from the site, and
now the linchpin of a large connection of ridge top properties that will
one day form a new regional park just outside town.

As a child, my first encounter with lions was hearing one scream as it
prowled all night just up canyon from our camp part way up the Hurricane
Deck near Santa Barbara.  It sounded like a woman having her throat slit.
 Terrifying and loud.  The sound came from one wall of the canyon then a
short time later from another, circling our camp for most of the night.
 Totally scary to a 12 year old.  We later found fresh prints in the mud
and I remember how big they were.  I would never second guess a person's
reactions to such a creature, especially if that person thought they were
possibly on the menu.  They are big, powerful and at rare instances,
lethal, and scary as hell.

So, good on ya Muk Muk for whatever it took to make it through that night.

Shroomer






On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 9:19 AM, Dan Jacobs <youroldpaldan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jul 21, 2013 11:09 PM, "Brick Robbins" <brick at brickrobbins.com> wrote:
> >
> > So it seems we have a habituated big cat in this area.
>
> I hope those directly involved report this before something worse happens.
> First hand reporting of an incident like this is taken seriously, second
> and third hand might be given less attention. The authorities might be able
> to do something other than kill the animal if they can get to it soon, but
> if time goes by and it hurts someone, all bets are off.
>
> Dan Jacobs
> Washougal
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubscribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
>
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
> All content is copyrighted by the respective authors.
> Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.
>