Mountain Lions...and....

[East]

We have on the news this morning a lady trapped in a car all night due to a mountain lion and it is in my old neighborhood...this is a video of one last month a mile or so from where she was last night....




Where I live now..the guy on the next street has a picture of one in his tree....they are all over the San Francisco Bay Area and especially in Silicon Valley and as we move into their territory there are alot of incidents...

What wildlife do you have in your immediate vicinity?

[Hardheaded1]

Bears and coyotes and roadrunners. A year ago, the drought was so bad, the bears came down out of the mountains looking for food and water.

Local recent pictures:





The coyotes tend to steal babies, but we have lots of babies, so it isn't really a big deal.



I stay away from the roadrunners. They can put out your eye.

[East]

I remember when we were in Santa Fe on our way to Taos we camped on this little mountain and there were bear signs all over the place....didn't see one though (but I wanted to)

I had a coyote do a semi circle around me and my brother one night...walking sideways. I thought it was a wild dog at first.

We have a lot of wild boar too. I was at my friends house a couple years ago and we watched these two HUGE boars run right by the glass door in her backyard..and they run FAST!!!! They are quite dangerous

[LJay]

We get the occasional bear wandering along the river that is about 8 blocks from
the house and the usual assortment of coons, possums, birds and snakes that like rivers. there are sturgeon in the river and I think that is neat.

I'm not sure the university students that are mostly on the other side of the river would count, but some might think so.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

The drought is causing critters to seek food and water. The mountains, hills and wild lands are seriously parched.

I noted a lot more water fowl have been landing and visiting on their migrations in the river out back. and the river is so low I watched a child walk/wade across the whole width.

Mountain lions do not attack humans unless they are starving or the human does something to annoy them. Same with bears. Undo fear of these critters is most likely leading people to do stupid things around them to beg to be attacked.

There are very few mountain lion attacks in California: https://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/lion/attacks.html humans do far more damage, there are at least 3,000 mountain lions killed annually in the USA, and their population is less than 30,000.

There are between 10-15 thousand black bears left in California.... Once again humans doing their wholesale slaughter of innocent critters.


The species is so stupid is that it has slaughter predator animals to the point where we have to unleash the third largest army in the world each deer season to keep the deer and elk populations in check.

If we passed a national law to stop hunting, suddenly the elk and deer population would explode, there would be starvation and sickness and the implosion (die off) could very well put deer and elk on the endangered species list.

They released wolves back into Yellowstone and the impact what tremendously beneficial. While wolves themselves do nothing at all with rivers, their release has lead to the restoration of wetland, restored forests, brought in birds....




I suspect that mountain lions, coyote, bear and all of the other top predators would have profound positive impacts if allowed to do their thing and their numbers become restored.

I know that bears that hunt salmon end up bringing vital nutrients into the deep forests and basically shit out ocean nutrients which are impossible to get into the forests in any other way. Removal of dams along Pacific northwest rivers allowing salmon to reach bear populations lead to changes in the very chemistry of the forests.

Mom nature figured it all out a long time ago... Humans have yet to get that message fully :frown:

[Rareboy]

We have on the news this morning a lady trapped in a car all night due to a mountain lion and it is in my old neighborhood...this is a video of one last month a mile or so from where she was last night....




Where I live now..the guy on the next street has a picture of one in his tree....they are all over the San Francisco Bay Area and especially in Silicon Valley and as we move into their territory there are alot of incidents...

What wildlife do you have in your immediate vicinity?

Oh thank you for this....I was rooting for the big cat.....we have had wildcats in our area...probably bobcat or somesuch...and have had a very large bear in the fields next to the house....along with wolves, coyotes (too many of them) foxes and the usual skunks, porcupines and of course...a large herd (20-30) of deer.

This is one of the reasons why we are planting a 100 metre wide corridor down the centre of the farm with trees...and placing conservation easements on our property in order to help create cover for the wildlings that we share our home with.

But I wish we had more big cats.

[palbert]

Moose, deer, wild turkeys, bear, red fox, coyote, rabbits, northern river otter, bald eagles and loons. Plus the varmints (skunk, porcupine, beaver). And most destructive of all: red squirrels.

[Virge]

It's 7:30 pm. I looked out the window a few minutes ago to see at least a half dozen whitetail deer under my crabapple tree snacking on whatever the wind is knocking down. That's a small group. On the way home today I counted 17 just a block away on a hill side watching traffic on the busy four lane while they rested... anf I'm not out in the country either. Deer around this town are smart about road traffic and never bother anyone except when they give sex education classes outside the school right across from me.

We have some HUGE mule deer, mostly old solo males with huge antlers who've been pushed out of the breeding party by younger hornier stronger ones. I saw one this morning when I woke up, walking down the street like he owned it.

Pronghorn antelope are nearby but don't come in town like the deer. I saw three today. We've been hearing coyotes. About a dozen different types of field mice that stay under control in town with feral housecats that have been neutered. Once in a while a few elk get tired of the Black Hills and wander this way and when they do so do cougars. 40 minutes away there's herds of bison who block the roads thanks to tourists feeding them every summer.

Prairie dogs by the thousands, who bring ferrets, hawks, coyotes, AND rattlesnakes. I only had 2 in the yard this summer. We see some raccoons but they're rare here.

The fun "exotics" are the yellow warblers who are really coming back in huge numbers since we started killing english starlings who are the first illegal immigrants. And we get young arctic owls who come south their first winters for easier food. When I see them around the neighborhood I start catching field mice and put them a small kiddie pool for owl food.

Oh... we have about 5 squirrels in town if that tells you how many trees we have. They funny thing about them is they all look so different we can tell them apart.

AND skunks!!!!!!! They travel in gangs and are the main reason I don't let me dogs stay out at night... A skunked dog is a month of drama.

[Hardheaded1]

We have a lot of wild boar too. I was at my friends house a couple years ago and we watched these two HUGE boars run right by the glass door in her backyard..and they run FAST!!!! They are quite dangerous

I grew up with a fear of boars, as my family had hunted them in times past, and I remember story books with pictures of them attacking men when hunted.

Of course, there are actually native wild hogs in the Southwest, but where I grew up in the South, only feral European hogs. Awesome animals, to be sure.

I worry about the big cats. They have a higher propensity to stalk humans than bears or other top predators. And because they are expert at stealth, we need hikers to be much more educated about traveling in pairs and how to be aware. Unfortunately, panthers take from behind, and by the neck, so few humans will ever get a chance to fight back or escape.

Top predators are a must, but we need to become nature smart again as a species, and survive the encounters.

And my sympathies go to anyone experiencing the terror of being attacked by a predator.

[CellarDweller]

Deer, bears, foxes, wild turkeys.