You might want to stay down in the city if you have little kids or dogs, pets.

http://plumasnews.com/mcondon/9074-mountain-lions-killed-after-killing-puppy-and-goats

This is a little northeast of where I live in Plumas County, CA.

Duane

I am not a hunter, but with special protection laws and lions not being endangered we are going to see more and more of this. Several sightings recently in the Palm Springs area. As we encroach nearer to wilderness areas and the lion population increases, the results are easily predictable.

It happens here in Western Washington in what I call the deep suburbs--- those areas that are up against the forest as opposed to more typical encroachment on farmland. We have friends who live on a small lake with lots of undeveloped land in the area. They keep goats and chickens and have had some issues with cougars, to the point that they walk the 1/4 mile to the mailbox with a 12 gauge in hand and the dog on point. They have some black bears wander through occasionally as well. Goats must send out a signal that says "FINE DINING" to a cougar.

This has been increasing with changes in hunting regulations like not allowing dogs for cougar hunting, compounded with human population increases and suburban sprawl. It would have made an interesting study to compare changes over the last few years with the sudden decrease in home construction, putting the brakes on growth in the areas adjacent to the forests.

Edited by dwambaugh on 02/01/2012 12:24:31 MST.

We get bears on the local rail to trail in our town, along with cougars and whatnot. That is the price you pay for living in the foothills. I grew up rural as well....just saying this (and yes it is cold) but when I was a kid we never got attached to pets much. We lost on average a couple cats a year and a dog every year to predators. It is the price you pay.

The voters banned lion hunting years ago here, so folks in urban interface and rural areas like Indian Valley and the likes up here will keep facing the threat of lion attacks. I've had a neighbor see a lion take a fox off of his deck. So that was what that noise was a few years ago in the early morning hours?
Duane

I've lived next to mountains in a number of western cities and mountain lions have occasionally strayed into the 'burbs as young cats stake out territory. Price to pay but usually by small pets.

That said, the only confrontation I've had outside the American mountain burbs was when some coyotes surrounded my 150lb wolf-ish malamute (a dog breed - a bigger version of a huskie) while walking in front of him in broad daylight. Pretty bold.

I suspect most vanished pets are the result of the hard to eradicate American wiley-e-coyote, ... just mountain lion sounds better.

Dingdingding. We have a winner. Yep, most of the missing critters come down to the hungry ol' coyote. Lived on an Island for 13+ years with a very ample pack of them that lived below us. They kept the rabbits in check and periodically would grab a cat or dog. But so would the bald Eagles!

Used to come outside in the dark to go to work and my yard would be full of them...slightly creepy as I hustled to my truck! But they behaved......

Again, it is the price one pays to live in areas that belong to the animals!!

http://www.rgj.com/article/20090106/...060345/1047/TT


Coyote chases 9-year-old skier at Tahoe resort

By FRANK X. MULLEN JR. • fmullen@rgj.com • January 6, 2009

Nothing gets a mother's attention as fast as a coyote chasing her 9-year-old son down a ski slope.
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On Sunday, Cindi Dyer of Reno and her son, Nicholas, were skiing down a black diamond run at Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort about 3 p.m. Dyer said the run was well-groomed and hard packed.

"I was telling (Nicholas) to carve his turns a little bit more," she said. "All of a sudden, out of the trees came a coyote that pursued him straight down (the run). Nicholas caught him out of the corner of his eye and knew something was coming at him, and he came straight down the hill.

"I was telling him, 'Keep skiing, keep skiing.'"

Dyer said a male skier wearing a black cowboy hat saw the chase and skied toward the coyote.

"He immediately started chasing the coyote and yelling at him and chased him away," she said. "The man was in a panic, a big guy waving his poles and yelling. The coyote didn't seem too worried. He just headed over to the other people."

Dyer said the animal was very close to the back of her son's skis.

"He was going as fast as my son," she said. "If he had fallen, he would have been attacked."

I just get really upset when mountain lions and other wild animals are killed because of human encroachment on their domain. I think it it just as bad when our ancestors slaughter native americans for their land.
In San Diego county every once while people will sight mountain lions and kill them instead of a drug and release program.

My family lived in a avocado grove in Fallbrook,ca my sister saw one pass through our acreage she thought nothing of it it was on it way through avocado groves to the wild lands of Pala indian reservation and cleveland national forest area.
Some idiot killed it shot it when the lion was about 3 miles south east of our grove and headed to the wild lands of pala. I pretty sure the lion was just following old animal trails that went through the wild lands of Camp Pendelton.

I was watching a show on PBS about Kangaroo mobs in Canberra ,Australia how the kangaroo have adapted to urban life and came down from the wild lands set aside for them and humans during the drought.
They would cull them or Kill about 800 of them off once in while because they were causing to many traffic accidents. It really upset me the simple solution would have been to run irrigation in the wild lands to keep the grass growing they seek to survive . Luckily the Australians love the Kangaroo so much they are developing birth control to feed to them.

My father would tell me about the rabbit hunts he participated sponsor by the gas company yearly mass rabbit hunt in property people were developing back in early 1960's in the inland empire. He said about 500 hunters would walk sided by sided and walk through the property shooting every rabbit they saw. Leaving a wake of dying rabbits behind them.

It just sad people should only hunt or kill animals if it for food only not to exterminate them for land they encroached on that belonged to the animals in the first place.Humans should do every thing they can do to safely do catch and release programs.
Also keep 1 mile wide wild lands area that leads the animals back to the native lands between housing and commercial projects. Instead of wall to housing and commercial property like their doing now.
What really crazy is people just don't understand animal habits if they did they would know what to do when confronted by one and safely get away.
Terry

Edited by socal-nomad on 02/02/2012 09:35:40 MST.

In past years I had chickens, so when raccoons figured out how to get in the pen, I just closed the coop door to prevent loss, no problem after that unless I forgot to close the door. You are right, we have moved into their territory.

Duane