Mountain Lion Foundation

Good Neighbors Protect Lions

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(Spring 2002 -- MLF Review Newsletter Excerpt)

Lion researchers Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor (authors of Desert Puma watched helplessly as twelve-month old cougar cub, "M-3" waited for days on the ridge for his mother to come home.

M-3 did not know that his mother had been shot while getting dinner together. Hungry herself, with a growing boy to feed, the others had come across an unattended sheep that solved her problem. Her instincts, however, got her killed on a depredation permit.

Finally, attempting to stay close to where his mother left him, M-3 ventured forth to relieve the growing hunger. He found another unattended goat and goose.

AND NOW M-3 IS DEAD TOO.

"This is one of the saddest situations I've seen," said Logan. After coming here from other Western states, Logan says he is shocked by what he calls some of Californians' ignorance, and lack of responsibility for their animals.

"The majority of California voters decided they wanted to protect the lion," he continued, "but they are threatening them by building all over their habitat and putting them at higher risk of road kill, encounters with humans, and depredation permit kills."

Logan particularly laments people living in lion habitat that do not take responsibility for keeping their pets out of harm's way and therefore threatening the fate of many carnivores.

He expressed surprise that people put up with this behavior.

"If I had a neighbor that left a pet or hobby animal outside at night," Logan said, "I'd go talk to him and tell him I had a young son that he was putting in danger because he was basically 'baiting' predators into the neighborhood." In fact, Logan says he would offer to help him build a predator-proof enclosure.

Logan said that a lot of problems could be solved by applying common sense about predators and by being more neighborly.

All over California, the number of mountain lions killed for preying on domestic animals continues to increase. In the eight months since the Mountain Lion Foundation began its Living with Lions program, staff has made great strides towards finding solutions to this situation. Thanks for the Goldman Fund, Doelger Foundation and MLF members like you, some hope is emerging that this unnecessary carnage can be drastically reduced.

The better depredation permits and patterns are understood, the better staff can recognize patterns and focus in on the actions that will address them.

Reviewing the permit documentation, it becomes clear that many of the people requesting depredation permits are repeat customers. Although the names of permittees are deleted, the records show kills from the same geographic locations, time and again, year after year. It appears that a relatively small universe of people, in identifiable areas, receive permits for a large number of kills.

This would indicate that targeted efforts to change their attitudes or behavior may be more practical than previously believed. Further, the consistency of these requests makes the case that killing a lion does not "solve" a depredation problem.

Drive down almost any country road and you will see goats, sheep, chickens, dogs, and other domestic animals tied up in a yard or penned in enclosures that prevent escape but are not designed to keep predators out. While traditional cattle and sheep ranchers may draw on a long history of methods for protecting their livestock, many hobby farmers, weekend ranches, and rural pet owners can not.

Interviews with Department of Fish and Game personnel and rural residents living in mountain lion habitat have clarified that many of the kills are due to a lack of responsibility on the part of these small scale animal owners. Some may simply need to be educated how best to live in cougar country. Others may need to be persuaded that their actions are putting their neighbors at risk.

It only takes one person to attract wild animals to human neighborhoods, whether it is by leaving domestic animals outside or by feeding deer and other natural prey species. For those who insist on "baiting" predators by leaving small animals unattended, it might be necessary to require some common sense responsibilities by law, rather than continuing to issue permit after permit.

Living with Lions staff has also discovered that the geographic areas of most affected by lions are changing. Permit numbers in Southern California are diminishing as the mountain lion population near urban centers is reduced through loss of habitat.

Kills in the Sierra Nevada continue to spike as thousands of new residents move up into the foothills. Permits in wine growing area such as San Luis Obispo peak and then ebb, as rows of grapes replace lion habitat, and displaced cougars seek new territories and take domestic animals in transit.

MLF has begun to analyze the initial 2001 depredation data from DFG Headquarters and will continue to do so as permits arrive from regional offices.* The preliminary data indicates that 197 permits were issues in 2001, which resulted in the deaths of 111 lions. Of great concern is that at least 14 lions were killed as the result of conflicts with pets, 4 more than in 2000.

MLF staff is under no illusion that these changes will be simple. A ban on trophy hunting required no behavior changes on the part of anyone but about 150 people in the state. Reducing depredation permit kills will require tens of thousands of people to learn to live in lion country and then to change their lifestyles accordingly.

At the same time, MLF members have faced great challenges before and risen to the occasion. The wildlife with whom we share this land we love, indeed the very land itself, depends upon it.

*2010 update: MLF is no longer privy to reviewing permits at the California DFG office.