As if there isn't enough to worry about---
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...nimal-n1137731
As if there isn't enough to worry about---
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...nimal-n1137731
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
One of the reasons I always have my Swiss Army knife. At night I carry a small .380 pistol when in mountain lion habitat.
Kent in SD
In contento ed allegria
Notte e di vogliam passar!
Flickr Home Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums
They're everywhere around here. It's a rare treat to see one, but wildlife night cameras routinely spot em. There have been 18 documented mtn lion attacks in Calif. in the last hundred years, with just a handful of fatalities. Yet in just a single year in this greater metropolitan area alone, five infants were killed by the Pekinese dog breed alone, and over 500 cases of dogbite in the city of SF alone required some kind of emergency treatment that same year. So put that in perspective. For their size, speed, and power, cougars are one of the world's least dangerous predators. Mule deer might have a different opinion. However, I did get scratched and bit up a few days ago by a feral kitten that wasn't particularly amused by losing a few parts earlier that day at the Vet.
Thank you for posting, was thinking along the same lines....
Way more people are killed by their own dogs and their own guns than anyone ever has by big cats
Makes me much more worried to be out in the hills at night knowing a bunch of people are packing heat and could ready to shoot the first thing that moves...
Isn't that comparison different? After all, there are millions of people around where dogs are. So there are more attacks by dogs compared to the relatively few people who hike where wild predators hunt. Reminds me of the joke about the guy who drowned in a lake that had an average depth of 2 feet. He was unlucky enough to fall into a spot 15 feet deep.
Flickr Home Page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanklein2000/albums
But even the skeets are dying
Here they have become tiny, invisible to me
all the bugs are dying out here in Fly Over land
Used to be I had to stop often to clean the bugs off the windshield, now never
Birds are moving North, 1000's of Black birds attacked my yard last week for worms and maybe voles
Tin Can
Most folks never hear a mountain lion attack them. They're super quiet, and you're in their playhouse. Personally, I wouldn't carry a .380, because it's doubtful that that caliber has enough stopping power, and the small bullet weight likely won't penetrate the hide. When I was in Arizona, I carried a hot-loaded Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt. Rule is, never get out of sight of your group; and never travel alone.
Best,
Dennis
Another article: https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/...y-15061367.php
This park is in Cupertino which is a bit away from Santa Cruz. There are plenty of mountain lions in those hills though. UCSC has a program to collar and track mountain lions in the Santa Cruz mountain range. http://www.santacruzpumas.org/puma-tracker. "Note that there are many more mountain lions without collars on them, than are those with collars."
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has a page on mountain lions including things to do if you encounter one. https://wildlife.ca.gov/Keep-Me-Wild/Lion
-Darren
It was on the news again just a few minutes ago. The little girl is OK. The lion hasn't been caught. If they do tree one with hounds, they'll use a DNA test to see if it's the culprit or not. All depends on how good a lawyer the cat can afford after that. But it might have left the area by now. Cougars are easy to stop with a lung shot. I've been snarled at, but have fortunately never had to pull the trigger. They're beautiful fascinating animals, and it would make me sick to have to kill one. When I was young we did have to shoot a desperate crippled cat that was taking livestock because it was incapable of taking normal game. Up the street from me they sometimes take wild turkeys. I should leave them some cranberry sauce. I never worry about cougars. Ticks are a greater threat.
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