Mountain lion reports raise concern in Northern San Joaquin Valley

By John Holland

September 11, 2014 

MODESTO

• MOUNTAIN LION SAFETY
  •  Do not hike, bike or jog alone.
  • Avoid hiking or jogging when mountain lions are most active – dawn, dusk and night.
  • Keep a close watch on small children.
  • Do not approach a lion.
  • If you encounter a lion, do not run. Instead, face the animal, make noise and try to look bigger by waving your arms. Throw rocks or other objects. Pick up small children.
  •  If attacked, fight back.
  Source: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
  
  LIONS VS. HUMANS
  
  The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has verified 14 attacks by mountain lions on people in the state since 1986, three of them fatal:
  •  March 1986: 5-year-old girl injured in Caspers Wilderness Park, Orange County
  •  October 1986: 6-year-old boy injured in Caspers
  •  March 1992: 9-year-old boy injured in Gaviota State Park, Santa Barbara County
  •  September 1993: 10-year-old girl injured in Cuyamaca State Park, San Diego County
  •  April 1994: 40-year-old woman killed in Auburn State Recreation Area, El Dorado County
  •  August 1994: Man and woman in their 50s injured in remote part of Mendocino County
  •  December 1994: 56-year-old woman killed in Cuyamaca
  •  March 1995: 27-year-old man injured on Mt. Lowe in Los Angeles County
  •  January 2004: 35-year-old man killed in Whiting Ranch Regional Park in Orange County
  •  January 2004: 30-year-old woman injured in Whiting Ranch
  •  June 2004: 28-year-old woman injured in Sequoia National Forest, Tulare County
  •  January 2007: 70-year-old man injured in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Humboldt County
  •  July 2012: 63-year-old man injured along Shady Creek in Nevada County
  •  September 2014: 6-year-old boy injured in Cupertino, Santa Clara County
  

A mountain lion appears to have killed a horse near Hilmar. Other sightings of the big cats have been reported in Modesto and other locales well out of the animal’s natural range.

Concern has risen in the Northern San Joaquin Valley about the predators, which favor the hills to the east and west but have been known to stride through the flatlands at times.

Wildlife experts say lions prefer to avoid people, and only three fatal attacks on humans have been confirmed statewide since 1986, but the threat is there.

Jessie Wright, who manages a horse ranch on Golf Links Road in the Hilmar area, said the signs are clear that a lion killed one of the ranch’s animals Aug. 23. The horse, about 6 months old and weighing 600 pounds, was found in a pasture with fatal wounds to its neck. “There’s no way a coyote could have been strong enough to bring a horse down like that,” Wright said. She added that an expert from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife agreed that it was a mountain lion attack.

A representative of the state agency could not be reached Thursday, but it has said lions are capable of roaming far from their native habitat. Two years ago, one turned up in a tree a couple of miles southeast of Turlock. It was deemed dangerous and shot to death by a sheriff’s deputy.

Tuesday afternoon, Modesto police and the state agency investigated a report of a lion along Dry Creek near Creekside Golf Course. They found nothing that day, and no new sightings have been reported, spokeswoman Heather Graves said Thursday.

Dry Creek is a semi-natural corridor running from western Tuolumne County through farmland and development. The Hilmar-area ranch is close to the Merced River, which Wright said could have been the route for the mountain lion that killed the horse.

Lions loom large right now because of an attack Sunday on a 6-year-old boy hiking on a trail in Cupertino, near natural habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The child was treated for puncture wounds at a hospital and released. The cat was tracked down and killed.

Thursday, a school in El Dorado Hills, in the foothills east of Sacramento, was briefly placed on lockdown because of a lion spotted near a business park. Officials said the cat did not appear threatening.

In July, a sighting in south Modesto turned out to be a dog that looked like a lion. A representative of Fish and Wildlife said at the time that “90 percent of reported sightings are a case of mistaken identity, with dogs, raccoon, foxes, bobcats and house cats being the usual suspects.”

The state agency estimates that 4,000 to 6,000 lions live in California, in a variety of habitats that harbor deer, their favorite prey. Experts say they tend to avoid humans as they prowl their large ranges. A 1990 ballot measure made it illegal to kill them unless they are immediate threats to people or livestock.

The agency has verified 14 attacks on people in the state since 1986. None was in the Northern San Joaquin Valley or adjacent mountain counties.

Despite the low odds, attacks do happen to people and livestock. The horse death near Hilmar was noted in a weekly email on rural crime from the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, complete with graphic photos. “We issue these photos to remind people that we are dealing with a very strong, agile and dangerous wild animal,” the message said. “Use extreme caution with your pets, livestock and families.”

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