Mountain Lion at Whiting

That poor cat looks sad and confused.

 

He probably misses his mother and bro/sis.

 

I saw it in the paper. They'll wait till the public forgets, then they'll kill it. I like what Dirtvert said...take the wild out of wilderness park and all you'll have is a park.
They should let it go and close the park.

 

I live in Portola Hills, and ride Whiting 4 days a week, this is eactly where I like him.

In all seriousness, yes, he doesnt look right in a cage, to bad we all can't get along. No pun intended.

 

He looks sad and confused? Missing his family? I see him chilling out thinking "maybe if I act calm cool and collected, the moment one of them opens this cage I can make a run for it and claw a few major arteries on my way out the door".


It isn't Garfield. Let's not personify it. It's a cat. Thinking cat thoughts. Like what can I eat or hump next. Think bird; with a few extra MB of RAM.

 

Exactly. Not at all like people.



(Hmmm. What can I eat, hump, or buy next?)



I love all the amateur wildlife biologists on STR! Did any of you actually read the Yosemite study on lion behavior--or any other studies--or are you just basing your ideas on what you think is normal?



VV Too much crying? Seriously? How about too many grown men that can't handle their share of nature?! Move to Iowa if you can't deal with a few alpha predators in your territory (or stick to the Loop).
"A good man always knows his limitations."--Clint :beer:

EDIT: And--according to the DFG--you're wrong about the DFG: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news/issues/lion/lion_faq.html

 

yeah, crying, bleeding heart whining waaaaaa waaaaa they took away simba bring em baaaaaaack wild life manager wanna be.

the dfg are underpaid compared to the police and patrol thousands of square miles of land and shoreline per person. there are only 200 in the entire state, and only about 3 from ventura to orange county. they deal with million dollar poaching operations, pot growers and are also ultimately responsible for public safety in this situation. game wardens are trained in biology, natural resource conservation and policing. im pretty sure that they did the best they could under the circumstances. when you finish training for mountain lion population and habitat management, let them know. or maybe not, i believe they already have a couple of experts on call.


""I've never seen that before," said Sforza, who oversees the Southern California area. "It was odd the lion didn't seem disturbed but the coyote seemed a little stressed."

The DFG doesn't know why the lion appears not to be fearful of people or other wildlife. "He seems more passive than aggressive to me," Weldy said. "Maybe he was someone's pet, or an animal that was socialized or he has an underlying illness we're not aware of. But anyone who speculates is speaking without facts. The bottom line is the animal shows an abnormal behavior and he's best off not in the wilderness."


*****************

too much crying on here for an apex predator.

youd think it was simba that got locked up.

dfg says the ml population is really high.

i trust the dfg made the best decision to its ability.

 

the cat gets punished for being born in his home, the wilderness. sucks. he will probably pay the ultimate price.

 

To put all this in perspective: look at all the recent articles about cyclists and pedestrians getting killed by whom? Our own human beings driving cars, distracted by texts, driving DUI, maybe just don't give a crap about their fellow human beings...whatever... and then just driving away as if the person they just killed means absolutely nothing. Yeah, I'm referring to the numerous hit-and-runs lately.

So check the percentages: there are more cyclists and pedestrians killed by cars driven by humans than are attacked and killed by mountain lions.

 

Are you saying you would rather ride along Serrano Trail side by side with a 100lb cat than pedal down Portola next to a car? I will take my chances riding along side the car.. IMHO I think this is comparing apples and oranges.. yes percentages wise the chances of getting attacked are very slim, but those chances increase exponentially when you have a cat roaming openly in broad daylight on heavily used trails.. I spend a fair amount of time in the ocean too and do not live in fear of a shark attack every time I go into the water, but that doesn't mean I would paddle into a section where I can see a dorsal fin circling.. no one in their right mind would do that.. In terms of the perspective you're talking about, thousands of cars pass by peds and cyclists daily so just based on that level of interaction you're gonna have a high number of accidents/fatalities/etc.. there aren't very many lions roaming locally, so that's a tough comparison..

 

The odds of dying from:

A motor-vehicle accident (as a pedestrian): 1 in 525

A dog attack: 1 in 115,000

A fireworks discharge: 1 in 415,000

A mountain lion attack in CA: 1 in 32,000,000

Heart disease: 1 in 3

Just sayin'.

And while it's tough to compare apples to oranges, there's no doubt that you're taking a WAY bigger risk walking to McDonald's on the 4th of July than you are playing in the forest the rest of the year!

 

when it comes to statististics, you should divide number of attacks over number of affected users. otherwise, you are just diluting the sample.

 

All I know is that if this were happening a few miles East on some Arizona trail we'd be warming up some rice and beans and tapping a keg.

 

Ok people, lets take the emotion out of it. I've read so many posts on here, FB, yahoo, OC Register and everyone has valid points, although a few were a bit idiotic and kneejerk at best.

This cat after 15 riders came up if it, reacted like all the other mtn lions and jumped into the brush and disappear, never to be seen of heard from again, we wouldn't be talking about it. It didn't which brought a temporary closure to the trails it was reportedly sighted on. Once the authorities decided it was ok and just another random sighting and the cat moved on, they opened the park till the video of the coyote appeared. A lion that comes up on a coyote that is barking in distress with also human presence right there is very odd don't you think? This is why the authorities close the park again and began the search. Not to cage him into captivity, but to scare it away and move on in Limestone/Freemont or further into the Santa Ana's. Those bean bag shells did not even phase this cat and it was apparent it was not going to leave.

Like all of you, I would have love to have a happy outcome of this, but closing Whiting is not answer folks. If closed, for how long? There are lions all over. Do we close San Clemente ST, the Santa Ana's, Santa Monica's, San Gabe's, etc so the kitties can live in peace without human encounters? As many of you know, Whiting is very close to homes, an elementary school, shopping center, a park at the top of Concourse and another just above the main entrance. Even if they did close Whiting permanently, with the way this lion was behaving, who's to say he will not just stay IN Whiting but instead wander into a park where small kids play? IF and a big IF at that, happens and attacks even a poodle(nothing against poodles) in a neighborhood park, that lion would have been "hunted down", shot and killed.

Stats mean nothing when it hits close to home. I knew of someone who would care less in those numbers and another who by your stat is 1 OF 32,000,000 and would probably also care less from the conversation I had with her on this topic.

 

Its really easy to say let the lion stay in the park when you aren't the ones riding in the park four times a week. I dont want to be riding in a small enclosed area like serano with a 100 lb mountain lion living there nor do I want it killed. But moving it seems like the most logical decision.

 

Put another way, I can say I don't mind riding in an area where lions live. I do. I do appreciate that the DFG took action to remove a lion observed to be acting abnormally, in this case having no fear of human or animal interaction, from a high traffic area. Seems reasonable. Not everyone will agree, but erring on the side of caution doesnt sound too radical.

Animals, wild or not, will feed on the most convenient resource. Lion, no fear of humans, what are the chances?

 

Having mountain lions around is part of the danger factor that I get a kick out of when I'm the very last person in Whiting or Oaks as the sun is going down on a weeknight. I MTB for adrenaline. Why take this away? If I wanted a safe time, I'd ride in full body armor and grip the brakes all the way down every hill. Or hell, I'd just spin a stationary cycle.

 

you shouldve rushed in there then when it was around. maybe even taken video. you had two weeks to go every day.

 

Nobody ever suggested leaving the cat in the park permanently. Why not just close the entire park (closing one trail was laughable) for a few days, monitor the situation, and see what happens? The lion almost certainly would have wandered off on his own to find a more suitable territory. If not, I think most people would have considered relocation to be the most sensible plan.

Variations on this situation will continue to occur as long as there are big cats in the Santa Anas. This didn't seem like a great long-term solution.

Bing- I checked my numbers, and you're right: The odds of being attacked by a lion are almost identical to the odds of convincing a stranger on the interwebs to change their mind.

 

I ride and hike solo in Whiting a couple of times a week in the early evening. I've come across that coyote who likes to hang out a the bottom of Line Shack and the herd of deer in Sleepy Hollow. I wish I'd've been one of the lucky ones to have seen the lion.