[at-l] Mountain Lions

[SRober1431@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/6/1998 5:19:45 PM Mountain Daylight Time, Trekker4
writes:

<< The mountain lion people were non-commital about my wife's sighting in MA
>>

Yep, that's their usual way of handling such stuff.  It is "an unconfirmed
sighting."

<<Mt lions won't harm adults any more than bears or snakes.>>

Don't count on that.  With the continued encroachment of  subdivisions into
their territory, they have become quite convinced that they have nothing to
fear from us around here, except the loss of their habitat.  Whereas they
formerly (11 years ago) were only occasionally and only fleetingly sighted in
the backcountry, today they can be observed out in the middle of clearings
sunning themselves.  We even had one in a tree downtown this summer.

Yesterday Slo-Mo, Downhill Hopeful, and I had lunch with friends of mine.  He
was stalked by a mountain lion on the Tonnahutu Trail about 3 years ago.  It
was in a crouched position, ready to pounce,  when  he happened to glance
behind.  With sticks, rocks, and shouting, he got it to back off, but never
far.  Like your kitty cat, it stalked him, walked around him, followed him.
Always, its intent was clear.  (Yum-yum.)  

This went on from 5 pm to 2 am.  During this time (before dark), he climbed up
to almost the top of a ponderosa pine, carrying with him a log he had picked
up from a tumbled-down cabin nearby.  (He says he had so much adrenalin
pumping that he could have picked up a 160 pound log.)

In the pitch black of the dark night, he could hear it climbing up towards
him.  He could jab out at space, since he could not see it.  Then he made
contact.  It felt like he hit its chest.  It fell to the ground.

His wife had been calling for the rangers to go on a search, but they kept
putting her off, suggesting that he was just out for a night on the town after
his run.  Finally, she lied, suggesting that he had a heart condition.  That
spurred them into action.  When they found him, they wanted to know why he was
up in the tree.  He told them.

While he was making his way down, they used their flashlights to survey the
scene on the ground.  Pretty soon the one who THOUGHT he had his gun with him
was frantically searching his pack, looking for it.  To his obvious relief,
the gun was there.  They walked out to the trailhead with the armed ranger
walking backwards.

Now, the point is that, without the shyness we have counted on for decades,
these animals have indeed changed their mind about our place in their food
chain.  If you are running along a trail, and a deer and an elk are grazing
closeby, YOU are going to be its food of choice.  

Since that happened to Moses Street, a woman ranger has been attacked, and a
boy aged 9-11 (have forgotten the exact age) has been killed here in this park
(Rocky).  A child was attacked at Mesa Verde last year, and a man was attacked
near Denver this spring.

I too have come across just made lion tracks in the snow.  It was merely
interesting at that time.  Not now.  I saw one in a meadow.  No one believed
me then.  They do now.

My whole point is that I will probably now keep my eye on my back when hiking
through the New England area, just as I do here now, since you related this
experience.  The lion that spent all of those 7 hours trying to convert Moses
Street into a meal NEVER made even one sound.  Again, the kitty cat and mouse
. . . .

You don't have to surprise them, walk between them and their kittens, or step
over them.  You just have to be moving at such a gait that they become "turned
on" to the prospect that you present.

By the way, Moses Street, the man who had a new insight into lion's preferred
fare from the top of a ponderosa pine, is quoted twice in an article about
this incident in the September edition of Men's Journal.

Kinnickinic
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