Dave Paoli hopes the mountain lion that attacked family dogs twice recently on his Inglenook place never comes back.
But if the lion does in the next few days, authorities have given Paoli a depredation permit to take the animal. These special 10 day permits are rarely issued, with only about a dozen lions taken per year amid hundreds of mountain lion-human encounters statewide Paoli was walking his two small dogs on June 11 when they gave chase to something.
His 10-year-old miniature Australian shepherd Cubby’s barking suddenly changed. The other dog retreated.
“It was like a ping bark, a sound I had never heard before,” said Paoli.
The lion was then scared off.
“He saw me and he saw Cubby coming from the other direction, so he took off,” said Paoli.
Last week, an even more frightening attack took place when the lion returned and seized Paoli’s son’s dog by the neck, just outside where the family was sleeping. The lion pierced the 75-pound yellow Labrador’s neck and punctured an ear.
“My son jumped out of bed. The dog was making a sound like crying. It had Tuscany by the neck,” Paoli said. Both dogs have recovered.
He then called the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The warden referred Paoli to the federal trapper. DFW issued a take permit, but so far no trap has been set and the lion has not returned. Neighbors have continued to spot the animal.
Paoli has lived on the west side of Highway 1 in Inglenook for 11 years. He has never had lion problems—-beyond finding tracks. On the east side of the road, which backs up to the redwood forest, there have been problems.
Lion biologists say the behavior of this big cat is unusual. Most lions range over a large area and don’t stay around one spot. Neighbors have been seeing and having encounters with this lion for months.
All over California, lion encounters are being reported. Housecats have been killed. Dogs and livestock have been attacked recently by mountain lions. While some have speculated attacks on pets may be on the increase, there is on scientific evidence of that.
Nor even any that the drought is causing dramatic change in lion behavior. But there are proven ways to avoid lion encounters. Keys are never feeding wild animals, especially deer, and bringing in pets at night, the DFW says.
Ronnie James, of Woodlands Wildlife in Mendocino works to educate people on how to avoid conflict. One way is by understanding the reasons for animal behavior.
“The lion at Inglenook is probably a young animal, hunting alone for the first time. Young animals haven’t learned to discriminate yet—and this one has had his first lessons about human contact by interacting with two pet dogs,” she said.
She said Paoli’s wish to never see the animal again may come true.
“What it has learned is that things that smell like humans (their yards, their walking places, their homes, their dogs) are not to be reckoned with. The humans won these two encounters and scared the lion away. In the future it will probably stick to easier prey, deer and other large wildlife that do not smell like humans. It is already afraid of humans, otherwise the two humans involved would not have walked away alive,” James said.
Mountain lions are protected, but in no way endangered or even threatened.
Since lion hunting was banned by votes in 1990, lion attacks increased, but not as much as some feared and predicted. There have been a dozen lion attacks on humans, three fatal. There had not been a fatal attack before that in nearly a century and very few attacks of any kind. Mountain lions usually live among people without bothering them or even being seen. Pets can cause lions to get too close to lions. Some have suggested that outlawing hunting has removed fear from lions, but that viewpoint is controversial.
Others say humans have simply moved into lion territory. Biologists believe that the mountain lion population is between 4,000 and 6,000. But lions are incredibly hard to count, the DFW says.
Lion policy has often been divorced from science. After two women died from rabies after being attacked by a mountain lion in the early 1900s, a bounty was placed on mountain lions in 1907 during the hysteria that followed. Until 1963, people were paid for killing them in California. In 1969, they were made a game animal with regulated hunting, possibly the only decision in their history based on the same science as used on less appealing species.
In 1990, voters approved the ban on hunting. Experts don’t think the numbers of mountain lions has increased much due to non-hunting. Increases follow the deer population.
Lion problems are not unique to California. Rural encounters with lions have increased all over the West. The book “The Beast in the Garden”, tells the story of how residents in Colorado dealt with lions following a fatal attack. Lions can leap over most fences.
Livestock guardian dogs are one solution that some try. Another unorthodox one is use of rubber bullets. Some wildlife officers and police in other Western states use this method to deter the pumas. Also apparently on the increase locally are bobcats, which are sometimes mistaken for their larger cousin, especially when lions are young and have spots.
Adult male cougars may be more than 8 feet long, from nose to end of tail, and generally weigh between 130 and 150 pounds. Adult female lions can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds.
The best solutions involve not offering food to deer or any other wild animals that lions might prey upon. Lions view housecats as rivals. Pets and livestock can look like an easy dinner if outside at night.
Toni Rizzo of Fort Bragg has a tall fence all the way around her place but she learned that was no protection.
“Putting up a fence won’t keep lions out. My then 90-pound dog was attacked by a mountain lion in our fenced yard several years ago. He lived through it with some nasty lacerations but otherwise fine. I now only let my animals out during the day and make sure they’re in by dusk,” Rizzo said.
James said a dog inside a fence can actually look like an invitation to a lion.
“A dog tied on a tether or in a dog run with no roof covering it is an open invitation to a lion, which can jump straight up 40 feet. They aren’t dumb, if they see something, even a dog in human territory, compromised by being placed in a confined place, they may take advantage of it. All animals, cats, dogs, goats, should always be brought into safe shelter before sunset,” she said. Woodlands Wildlife will come and do a half hour presentation to school or service groups.
“I pass around mountain lion skulls and claws and paw prints, do a little bit about identifying mountain lion tracks, talk about what to do if you see one, talk about things not to do if you’re out walking in the woods, what to do if one approaches you, how to keep pets safe, how to keep livestock safe. We request a donation be made to the wildlife program, and have our book available if anyone wants to buy one,” James said.
Woodlands Wildlife can be reached at 937-2545.
