Another Ca. mountain lion attack

[markc]

Read this article this morning.  
markc



Mountain Lion Attacks Cyclist in Calif.
 
 
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Jan 9, 8:00 AM (ET)

By GREG RISLING

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A mountain lion attacked and critically injured a bicyclist in an Orange County park and may have killed a man whose body was found nearby, authorities said.

The 2-year-old male cat, which weighed about 110 pounds, was later shot and killed, and its body was taken to a laboratory for testing, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Fish and Game Department.

Ann Hjelle had been riding with a friend in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park shortly before dusk Thursday when the mountain lion attacked her, said Orange County Fire Capt. Stephen Miller.

The lion pounced on the 30-year-old's back, grabbed her by her head and began dragging her, said her friend, Debi Nichols. Nichols said she screamed for help and grabbed Hjelle's legs in a struggle to free her.

 
"He dragged us down ... about 100 yards into the brush and I just kept screaming," Nichols said. "This guy would not let go. He had a hold of her face."

Other cyclists in the area threw rocks at the animal until it fled.

Hjelle was airlifted to Mission Hospital, where she was in critical condition early Friday, a nursing supervisor said.

After the attack, the body of an unidentified man in his 30s was found at the top of a trail near a bicycle. Authorities weren't sure how long he had been there and couldn't confirm if the man was killed by the mountain lion, but Miller said, "it's pretty obvious that an animal was involved." An autopsy was planned Friday.

Including Thursday's incident, there have been 13 mountain lion attacks on humans in California over the past 114 years, five of them fatal, said Doug Updike, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department.

Last September, game wardens shot and wounded an aggressive mountain lion spotted near an equestrian center in San Juan Capistrano. The lion was later found and killed, state officials said.

In 1986, 5-year-old Laura Small was attacked while looking for tadpoles with her mother in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park in Orange County. The girl's skull was partially crushed and she was left blind in one eye and paralyzed on her right side.

A 6-year-old boy was mauled in the same park a few months later. County supervisors closed most of the park to children for nearly a decade afterward.

Updike estimates there are between 4,000 and 6,000 adult lions roaming the Golden State, with usually five to seven mountain lions per 100 square miles. State law prohibits hunting or killing them.

[Lawdog]

A weapon of any kind wouldn't have helped Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, the man killed by the Mountain Lion. The preliminary autopsy report said that Mr. Reynolds was killed by a single bite on the back of his neck severing the cord. Seeing that in that park there is no firearms allowed maybe a can of bear pepper spray would have helped. The funny part of this is the fools that got our Mountain Lion hunting ban convinced everyone in power that there were only 9 Mountain Lions left in the state and thus needed to be protected. From 9 to 6,000 or more in such a short period of time. Seems to me that the Mountain Lions in California have followed the Lords word very well by going forth and multiplying at an unheard of rate. Time to make them a Big Game animal again in California, in my opinion.  Lawdog

[Quadzillabill]

Another site posted a statistic that I'm skeptical of:  "15 deaths from mountain lion attacks since 1890."

I'd love to find a source for this kind of number.

[freddogs]

Reintroducing wolves into California might thin out those cats. It sounds like they have extra in Wyoming and Montana.

Unfortunately more people will have to be injured or killed or someone "famous" attacked before anything will be done.

[Lawdog]

Quadzillabill,

Another site posted a statistic that I'm skeptical of: "15 deaths from mountain lion attacks since 1890."

No it's true.  Matter of public record.  Just do a search on the net of Mountain Lion attacks and you'll find it.  You'll also find that the number of incidents(attacks and close encounters) has increased since 1980.  I know the number of Mountain Lions on my own property has increased in that time period.  I now have one female with cubs(triplets this year) and one BIG tom as residents.  I see them all the time.  Lawdog

[markc]

listing 15 deaths from mnt lion attacks, I wonder how many non lethal mnt lion attacks there have been, and what is the increase in attacks that do not result in a human kill?  markc

[Siskiyou]

markc:

There have been a lot more exposers to Mtn. Lions in California in the last few years.  A couple of years ago in the same Auburn State Recreation Area that the 1994 Mt. Lion killing took place a Mt. Biker was chased by a Lion.  The F&G found the cat and killed him.

The Mt. Lion Foundation "Boiler Plate" response is these events are happening in Wilderness.  I do not consider the Auburn State Recreation Area a wilderness.  It is a heavly used recreation area that was mined and torn apart during the gold rush.  Maybe to a "City Slicker" it is a Wilderness.  The area the Lion kill occurred has been used by runners and Mt Bikers for years.

A few years ago a young lion was removed from a tree in Auburn Ravine. (Within Auburn City Limits) This was mined and has been a residential neighborhood for years.  It is not a new neighborhood that moved into lion habitat last week.  The F&G placed an electronic collar on the Lion and released it in a remote area 50 miles to the North.  During the night the Lion crossed the Upper Sacramento Valley and killed a bunch of sheep.  The F&G killed the cat.

Clearly captured Lions need to be released in Golden Gate Park!

Siskiyou

[Lawdog]

Siskiyou,

Clearly captured Lions need to be released in Golden Gate Park!

 :-D Why not?  They have wild hogs running around there might as well add a Mountain Lion or two to help control the deer, hogs and whatever else that needs controling.     Lawdog

[Lawdog]

UPDATE!!

Tests confirm that the Mountain Lion that the Rangers killed that night IS the one that attacked both bikers.  Tests also showed no sickness or illness.  Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, the man killed by the Mountain Lion, was kneeling down fixing his bicycle chain when the lion attacked as evidence collected at the scene showed.  Since the attack their have been over 20 reported sightings of Mountain Lions in the state.  All of these have been confirmed.  Lawdog

[Siskiyou]

There is some good news.  Apparently there is little bit of concern about Mt. Lions in the East Bay(San Francisco Area) Parks.  The prime concern is in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.  There has been over two hundred sightings of Lions in the parks over the last few years.  

A study of Lions in a S. Cal park showed that Lions only move 100 to 300 meters off the trails during the daylight hours.

[Lawdog]

Siskiyou,

A study of Lions in a S. Cal park showed that Lions only move 100 to 300 meters off the trails during the daylight hours.

Why should they go very far when the meal comes to you and it is so easy to catch.  Oh and that survey that stated that there are up to 6,000 Mountain Lions in Calif. was taken in 1985.  Wonder what the count is now?  Maybe 2 to 3 times that amount, say up to 15,000 to 18,000 now.

markc,

You asked how many attacks there were in Calif., here is a list that covers thry 1998 but it doesn't include the last one.  I also have the list of all attacks in the U.S. and Canada too.

List of Mountain Lion Attacks On People in California

This page is a complete, or very nearly complete, list of all
attacks on people in California through 1998. See Mountain
Lion Attacks On People in the U.S. and Canada for an
introduction to this page, bibliography and abbreviation
list. See also the companion page List of Mountain Lion
Attacks On People in the U.S. and Canada not including
California.

Deaths are highlighted in bold text. There were no deaths
in California from lion attacks from 1910 through 1993.

1890
19 June. A 7-year-old boy was killed by two lions while
playing among oak trees some distance from his home
in Quartz Valley, Siskiyou County, California. (OC)

1909
5 July. A rabid lion injured a woman and child in
Morgan Hill, Santa Clara County, California. Both died
of rabies. (OC)

1986
March. A lion attacked a 5-year-old girl, Laura Small, in
Caspers Regional Park, Orange County, resulting in a $2
million court judgment against Orange County. Laura
remains blind in one eye and partially paralyzed. (OCR
9/29/98, OC)

October. A 6-year-old boy, Justin Mellon, received minor
injuries resulting from a lion attack. (OCR 9/29/98, OC)

1988
25 June. Two lions chased a German couple with a small
son in the Green Valley Campground area of Cuyamaca
Rancho State Park. They reported one large lion with a
smaller one. The Game Warden found both together, and
neither moved when he approached. He shot the bigger one
-- an 80-pound male -- first, and the smaller one didn't
move. He then shot that one, a 63-pound male. (SDUT
2/11/96, C14)

1992
12 March. Non-fatal attack on a 9-year-old boy in Gaviota
State Park, Santa Barbara County, California. The boy's
father, brought to the scene by the boys' brothers, "hit the
cougar on the head with a rock, causing the cougar to
retreat." The boy is recovering from the injuries. (MLCSP;
OC; SDUT 4/15/95, A3)

1993
August. A 6-year-old boy was attacked in Los Padres
National Forest, Santa Barbara County, California.
(MLCSP, SDUT 4/15/95, A3)

September. A young cougar bit a 10-year-old girl camping
with her family at Paso Picacho Campground in Cuyamaca
Rancho State Park, California. The girl was slightly injured.
The mountain lion believed to have attacked the girl was
tracked down and killed. (SDUT 12/11/94 A1; MLCSP)

1994
January. Three bicyclists were "menaced" by a mountain
lion at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. (SDUT 12/11/94, A1)

23 April. Barbara Schoener, 40, a friend of my sister
and a long-distance runner in excellent physical shape,
was killed by an 80-pound female mountain lion in
Northern California on the American River Canyon
trail in the Auburn State Recreation Area. No one
observed the attack, and hence there are conflicting
hypotheses about what occurred.

Barbara's husband Pete Schoener says that the lion was
probably hidden on a ledge above the trail and pounced
on Barbara as she passed underneath the lion. The lion
knocked her down a slope and she was badly wounded,
but she fought the animal with her arms before she was
killed. Then the lion dragged her farther before eating
most of her body.

The accounts in the paper said that investigators
theorize that the lion surprised her by sneaking within
20' behind her on the tight trail and then ambushing
Schoener, knocking her 30' down an 80° slope.
Indications are she already was badly wounded but
briefly fought the animal there before the lion finished
the kill.

The trail is part of the Western States 100-Mile
Endurance Run trail. Barbara was the first person in
California in the 20th Century to die from a mountain
lion attack.

The mountain lion may have been protecting its
one-month-old cub by "defending" its territory against
intruders, or may have "recognized" Barbara as prey
because she was "running away" from the lion.

Barbara Schoener was 5' 11" and 140-150 pounds. (The
papers incorrectly gave 5' 8" and 120 pounds.)

(SDUT 5/8/94, A3; 5/13/94, A3; Pete Schoener, via an
email from my sister Connie Vavricek)

9 May. A couple with a little boy saw a lion approaching at
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. They threw rocks, but it
refused to move away. The Game Warden went to the area
the next day, saw it and shot it. He found the 83-pound
male had been feeding on a fresh deer kill nearby. (SDUT
2/11/96, C14)

16 August. 50-year-old Troy Winslow and his wife Robin,
along with 48-year-old Kathleen Strehl, were camping in
the yard of a rustic cabin near the isolated hamlet of Dos
Rios in Mendocino County, California, when a fight broke
out between their dog and a 2-year-old, 60-pound rabid
female mountain lion at 4:30 a.m. The lion retreated under
the cabin after they threw rocks at it. Near daybreak, the
cougar attacked Kathleen, giving her four puncture wounds
in the arm and knocking her to the ground. The others
jumped on the cat and Robin stabbed it with a 12-inch
kitchen bread knife. The cat bit off Winslow's thumb during
the melee when the man grabbed the animal near its mouth.
(SDUT 8/17/94, A3; OC)

10 December. Iris M. Kenna, a 5-foot-4 and no more
than 115 pounds, 56-year-old woman in excellent
physical condition, was killed near Cuyamaca Peak at
Cuyamaca Rancho State Park while hiking to
Cuyamaca Peak alone in the early morning. She was
attacked near the bench dedicated to her at the
intersection of the Lookout Fire Road and Azalea
Springs Fire Road / Fern Flat Fire Road. (SDUT
12/11/94 A1)

1995
January. A mountain lion charged Michelle Rossmiller, a
17-year-old girl, as she was unloading school books from
her car at her home on Volcan Mountain, San Diego
County. Lisa Rossmiller, her mother, said: She saw it
coming at her, thought fast and closed the door before it
reached her. It was running straight at her. (SDUT 1/28/95,
B3).

20 March. Scott Fike, a 27-year-old cyclist, was bitten and
cut by a cougar near Mount Lowe in the Angeles National
Forest, California, on 20 March 1995, and fought the
cougar off with rocks. The cougar was then tracked down
and killed. (SDUT 3/25/95, A3)

1996
16 January. A woman on horseback at Cuyamaca Rancho
State Park reported an aggressive lion. She likely saved
herself by baring her teeth, growling and staring the lion
down as it approached her. Two Game Wardens and an
Animal Damage Control specialist went to that spot the
next day, and the lion charged them, getting to within 15
feet before the 62-pound male was shot twice. "What
bothered me about this one is the veterinarian said it was a
cub," Game Warden Turner said. "It was a 1 1/2 - to
2-year-old that probably was just booted out by its mother
and was trying to make it on its own." Turner said he'd
never had a lion charge like this one. (SDUT 2/11/96, C14)

1997
28 December. A female cougar charged a group of women
and children at Caspers Regional Park in Orange County,
less than two weeks after the county had lifted restrictions
on minors visiting the park. The cougar was later killed.
(OCR 9/29/98)

1998
August. A woman encountered a cougar near Stonewall
Peak in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California. She used
pepper spray on an aggressive cougar and finally repelled it
from attacking her and a female friend after a 15-minute
ordeal. (SDUT 10/10/98, B1)

October. Four mountain lions were killed at Los Vaqueros
horse camp in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, California.
That brought the total to 12 mountain lions killed in the
park since 1987. (SDUT 10/10/98, B1)

Too many Mountain Lions in California.  Lawdog