ON AIR: Mountain Lions in Tehachapi the things you should know

Mountain Lions in Tehachapi the things you should know

 

A Podcast with Robin Parks, MLF volunteer

In this edition of our audio podcast ON AIR, MLF Volunteer Robin Parks spoke to the Tehachapod, a podcast regarding Tehachapi and surrounding communities, on the topic of about these big cats that call Tehachapi and California home. They separate myth and facts about these predators that live in nearby mountains. Robin explains how to be better pet owners when living in rural areas. He also explains how mountain lions truly want nothing to do with humans and generally leave the area when they hear the human voice. They also talk about misidentification of mountain lions and things you can do if you ever do encounter one of these animals while out in their habitat.

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Mountain lion incident near Calabasas, California

At the end of August, a young mountain lion was killed after attacking a child in a yard near Calabasas, CA. The child’s mother responded well, quickly driving away the mountain lion and bringing in police and officers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who tracked and killed the cub.

In a horrific and tragic situation, mixed with our grief for the injured child and the community’s fear, we’re grateful that events resolved almost as well as they could have. The child is reportedly recovering well. After finding and killing the attacking lion, officers continued searching and located its mother and a sibling. Thanks to the careful and responsible approach of law enforcement, those mountain lions were captured unharmed. When no evidence was found that they had harmed a person, they were set free at a location farther from people.

This is the first mountain lion attack on person in Los Angeles County since 1995. With an endangered population of around 5-10 mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, there’s no doubt that they often come close to people. Each moves through a territory of 50 square miles, usually without anyone knowing they were in the presence of this wide-ranging and secretive neighbor. The lion killed in this case was young, still learning how to behave, and suffered the ultimate consequence for its unfortunate choice. Its sibling and mother had already learned to avoid people, and thanks to the careful work by state and federal wildlife officials, they are free to continue living as mountain lions should.

As more Californians move closer to nature, people and cougars will cross paths more often. Mountain lions have always been in our yards, but doorbell cameras, security systems, and trail cameras are revealing how often mountain lions cruise through our neighborhoods. Discovering our mountain lion neighbors shouldn’t be cause for fear. Their presence is a reminder that our homes are built where mountain lions and their kin have roamed for millions of years, and one sign of the health of the wilderness we see out our windows.

After centuries of treating carnivores as enemies to be killed on sight — the policy and attitude that left our state bereft of the bears that grace our flag — wild places are recovering. While some mountain lion populations are under consideration for state endangered species listing, other populations in the state are recovering from the indiscriminate slaughter of an earlier era. Maintaining healthy populations of mountain lions benefits us all. Healthy forests need carnivores, and healthy forests are more resilient to wildfires and the effects of climate change. Carnivores keep diseased deer and elk from infecting their herds, protecting the health of their prey. And since deer fearful of mountain lions avoid venturing too far into the open, mountain lions help protect our orchards, farms, and gardens.

All of this may be cold comfort to a family and a community recovering from last month’s shocking events. Some may even question the wisdom of coexisting with mountain lions, while others will ask how we can better protect our families.

In part, we can take comfort in knowing that mountain lions far prefer their wild prey — mostly deer, but also rabbits, squirrels, feral pigs, raccoons, and coyotes. With thousands of mountain lions in California, we know of only 20 attacks on humans in the last 35 years. More Californians have been killed by lightning strikes in the same time period. Most risky interactions with humans, including last month’s, happen when a younger lion mistakes a human for the food they want. Older mountain lions generally avoid people, our pets, and livestock. Research in California and elsewhere shows that hunting mountain lions, for recreation or in retaliation for threats to people or livestock, tends to make future conflicts more likely, by removing experienced older lions and leaving room for callow and riskier youngsters.

We can and do co-exist with mountain lions, as humans have in California since time immemorial. The alternative to this coexistence, and the risks it brings with it, is a return to the archaic policy of bounty hunting and wanton slaughter. Those disastrous policies wiped out mountain lion populations everywhere east of the Mississippi except Florida. In a handful of rural counties in the West, adherents to the fringe philosophies made famous by the violent takeover of Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon are attempting to resurrect those dangerous and discredited approaches. But elsewhere in mountain lions’ range, from the tip of Patagonia to the Yukon, people and mountain lions are finding better ways to live together.

There is still much we can do to protect mountain lions. Thousands are killed by hunters across the West each year. Many more are killed by livestock owners who wrongly believe those deaths will prevent further conflict. Many mountain lions, including the Santa Monica Mountain population, cut off by highways from neighboring populations, and as a result face the danger of inbreeding. As houses and roads encroach on the mountain lions’ lands, and climate change and wildfire disrupt the remaining wilderness, they are left with less room to pursue their wild prey and raise their cubs far from humans. Outside of Florida, the species lacks legal protections, but this could change soon in California. The state is considering listing some of the species’ populations as endangered or threatened, a crucial step to ensure their safety now and in the future.

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Josh Rosenau is a biologist and Conservation Advocate for the Mountain Lion Foundation.

Carmel Area State Parks adds over 1600 acres for mountain lions!

For immediate release

Date:  May 24, 2021

Contact:  Debra Chase, CEO, Mountain Lion Foundation
DChase@mountainlion.org
916-442-2666 ext. 103

Carmel Area State Parks adds over 1600 acres for mountain lions! 

Thanks to public support and the 6-0 vote of the California Parks and Recreation Commission, we now have 1200 more acres in natural preserve for mountain lions!

Sacramento, CA –  On Friday, May 21, 2021, the California Parks and Recreation Commission voted unanimously to approve the Carmel Area State Parks General Plan which included the creation of a New State Park consisting of 1604 acres which incorporates the Hatton Canyon and Point Lobos Ranch properties.

The New State Park will be called Ishxenta (Eesh-hen-ta) State Park, reflecting the original name given to the area from the Rumsen people whose presence substantially predates Spanish and Euro-Americans settlement.

Ishxenta State Park consists of two new Natural Preserves, recognizing the Point Lobos Ranch was purchased with Proposition 117 Mountain Lion Initiative funds. The Natural Preserve sub-classification is one of the highest levels of protection State Parks has for areas of special biological significance.

“Having worked on the Carmel Area State Park General Plan since 2012 it is exceptional to see some of California’s most unique and rare habitat types preserved for mountain lions and for the people of California,” stated Stephen Bachman, California Senior Park & Recreation Specialist.

“The Mountain Lion Foundation championed passage of Proposition 117 in 1990, which outlawed the sport hunting of mountain lions in California and also created the Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF) to acquire, enhance, or restore specified types of lands for wildlife or open space,” said Debra Chase, CEO of the Mountain Lion Foundation, “It is great to see these funds being put to good use to protect critical mountain lion habitat.”

The Point Lobos Ranch Property preserves and protects a scenic, naturally sensitive, and culturally important landscape, including high-elevation vistas offering spectacular views of Carmel Bay and the coastline. The land supports one of the world’s largest intact native Monterey pine forests, globally significant populations of the rare Gowen cypress, and other rare maritime chaparral habitat.

“We are losing far too much lion habitat to human encroachment and habitat fragmentation, it is critically important that we are intentional in our conservation and preservation of biodiversity, particularly as we face the unknowns of climate change,” said Chris Bachman, Region 1 Conservation Advocate for the Mountain Lion Foundation.

  • The Point Lobos Ranch acquisition was purchased using Proposition 117 California Wildlife Protection Act Funds. As such the Proposition, Chapter 9, Article 1, (2780 (a)), emphasizes the protection, enhancement, and restoration of wildlife habitat. The proposition allows for “recreational use”. The Proposition recognized the urgent need to protect the rapidly disappearing wildlife habitats that support California’s unique and varied wildlife resources.
  • Section 2781 emphasizes the need to maintain state acquired lands in open space and natural conditions to protect significant environmental values of wildlife and native plant habitat, riparian and wetland areas, native oak woodlands.
  • Section 2786(b) specifically mentions the funds are to be used for the acquisition of habitat to protect rare, endangered, threatened or fully protected species.


Founded in 1986, the Mountain Lion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure that America
s lion survives and flourishes in the wild.