TRAVELING SAFELY IN MOUNTAIN LION COUNTRY
We used several publications including some on-line sources in preparing this information for our equestrian readers, as well as information from the readers themselves. We often trail ride in mountain lion country, and we hope this article will be good for our reader and that this knowledge will make it easier to co-exist with the mountain lion. Some of the Images and Text on this website have been found while searching free collections of Text and graphics on the net. If you own the copyright to any of them please notify Webmaster and I will be happy to give credit and a link or remove them immediately.
Durning the past 100 years, approximately 70 Mountain Lion attack incidents have been recorded in The United states and Canada, resulting in 16 human fatalities. 75 percent of these attacks have occurred since 1970. A summary of varified mountain lion attacks on people since 1890 found that most victims were 16 years or younger and that the majority were not accompanied by adults. It was also found that the majority of the adults victims were alone and that most victims did not see the animal before the attack. Victim's efforts at fighting back by using a stick, rock, jacket, knife, bare hands, or shouting were often successful.
Mountain lions are solitary animals. Males and females pair only briefly to mate. Female lions may come into breeding conditions any time of the year, so kittens can be born year around. The usual litter size is 2 to 4 kittens. Females usually produce their first litter at 2 years of age and care for their young until the kittens are any where from 12 to 20 months old. Young mountain lions are quite large at 1 year of age and soon leave their mothers care to establish their own home ranges. The life of a predator is a tough one. The life span of a mountain lion in the wild is usually less then 10 years. In captivity, mountain lions have been known to live as long as 20 years. In North America deer are their primary meal although being opportunist, they prey on a wide variety of secondary, alternate prey, including large and small wild mammals, domestic livestock, and house pets. The wild mammals common in the lion's diet include mule deer, white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, peccaries, wildpigs, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, raccoons, beavers, porcupines, opossums, hares and rabbits, skunks, marmots, ground sqirrels, and small rodents. The domestic or exotic animals killed and eaten by mountain lions include cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, ostriches, emus, llamas, dogs(all breeds and sizes), and house cats.
How often they eat varies. They may kill a deer as often as every other day or as infrequently as every other week. Also, wolves and bears may run the lion off, forcing it to kill and eat sooner. Mountain lions may feed on kills for periods ranging from 1 night to as long as 3 weeks, depending on the availability and size of the prey, disturbance by other predators such as bears, wolves, and coyotes, and the rate of spoilage.
The mountain lion's attack is one of stalk and ambush, requiring tremendous stealth, strength, keen sight and hearing, speed, and cover. During the attack, a mountain lion positions its body close to the ground and moves silently toward the prey. The attack ends in a short burst of speed that allows the lion to grasp the prey by the back of the neck. The lion extends its claws to grab and hold the prey. Using its canine teeth to bite the throat, it will kill most medium to large prey by suffocation. Fatal bites to the neck that separate the vertebrae, or break the neck, may occur on smaller prey.
Adult males weigh between 100 and 160 pounds and are 78 to 91 inches long (6 1/2 to 7 1/2 feet) from nose to tail. Exceptionally large males weighing more then 200 pounds are reported but rare. Adult females weigh between 75 and 105 pounds, and are 69 to 80 inches long (5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet).
The color of adult mountain lions varies from gray-brown to red-brown, but the most common shade is tawny (yellowish). Mountain lions are further distinguished by dark markings at the end of the tail, the back sides of the ears, and in the whiskers area on the sides of the snout. These animals are white or a light color underneath the body, the front/inside of the ears, and at the front of the mouth. Until they're about 8 months old, young lions have distinct dark spots on their fur. Mountain lions are born with light blue eyes which gradually change to the distinct yellowish brown of adults, usually by the time they're 1 year old
As for hearing or seeing one in the wild, it will probably not happen. Mountain lions are characterized by their silence and do not announce their presence. They are masters of stealth and, as a rule are rarely seen. Most of the "screams" and "screeches" that are reported (by imitating) to authorities by folks who are sure a mountain lion has taken up residence on their property, have been very good imitations of the sounds made by barn owls, coyotes, and foxes. A Follow-up to a reported visual sighting more often then not will turn out to be a coyote, bobcat, yellow labrador retriever or domestic cat. Ever mountain lions reported to be dead on the road side are often coyotes, domestic dogs or bobcats.
Mountain lions appear to have a natural aversion to humans, yet often wander into areas with high levels of human activity. In the 1970's, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game, monitored for the first time, from small airplanes equipped with receivers, mountain lions wearing radio-collars, to find and document the animals' movements. What the biologists were most impressed with was that "the cougars were commonly around campgrounds with people." They were "amazed that nobody saw or reported them". Mountain lions were also reported in the valley area of Yosemite National Park during some of the highest periods of human recreation. Ordinarily, this animal is very shy and wary of humans. Attacks on people are extremely rare. For example, in the western United States millions of people recreate in mountain lion habitat every year. Wildlife agencies receive hundreds of reports from hikers, hunters, mountain bikers, trail runners, and equestrians about mountain lion incidents or "encounters". Yet only a few of these encounters have resulted in physical contact of any kind. Mountain lions are also curious animals, and many people in the outdoors report being followed or approached, only to have the animal leave without incident. It might make you wonder how many time this has happened without your knowing it.
During the last 30 years, both the numbers and distribution of mountain lions have undoubtedly increased in western North America, since the elimination of bounty hunting and other unregulated hunting. Hunting seems to have little or no effect. Western states continue today to regulate hunting and yet report a stable-to-increasing lion population.