County Temporarily Closes Caspers Park

Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park just east of San Juan Capistrano, where a 5-year-old girl was mangled by a mountain lion last Sunday, will be closed for at least the next 10 days as a precautionary measure, park officials said Thursday.

“We’re pretty sure we got the cat, but we want to be very sure there are no others around the public campgrounds,” said Tony Gimbrone, Orange County Parks District supervisor of wilderness and natural parks.

The 7,500-acre park attracts as many as 500 visitors a day. While it is closed, ranger patrols are being intensified in the search for any other lions that may be within park boundaries, Gimbrone said.

“We raked the park yesterday and today and found nothing,” he said, adding that if another cat is located, the state Department of Fish and Game will be called in to capture and relocate it.

Other campgrounds and parks in or near the wild backcountry of the Santa Ana Mountains, where about two dozen of the big cats are thought to roam, have not been affected.

“We haven’t come up with any reason to close any campgrounds,” said Nancy T. Curriden, U.S. Forest Service ranger for the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest, which includes 134,000 acres in Orange County.

“The Upper San Juan Camp and the Falcon Group Camp (both off Ortega Highway northeast of the Caspers park) are open,” she said. “Bluebird Camp is closed, but that is customary at this time of year.”

Similarly, the privately owned San Juan Hot Springs, which lies near the eastern end of Caspers Park, has remained open.

“We just haven’t been affected (by the attack on the little girl), and we’ve never closed down,” manager Bob D’Alfonso said.

The victim of the mauling by the mountain lion, Laura Michele Small, of El Toro, remained in serious condition Thursday at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, spokeswoman Jan Walker said. She added that the child has continued to “regain some movement on her right side” which was partially paralyzed from puncture wounds in her skull and brain from the lion’s teeth.

“There’s also some improvement in the wounds to her right eye, but there is still some doubt (as to whether her vision will be affected),” Walker said.

Laura was grabbed by the lion and pulled into the underbrush while hiking in Bell Canyon with her family. Another hiker, Gregory Ysais, heard the commotion and ran to the scene, eventually beating the animal off with a tree branch. The next day, professional trackers shot the cat to death after a tranquilizer dart failed to subdue it.

A preliminary examination performed at the Los Angeles County veterinary diagnostic laboratory showed the animal weighed just over 90 pounds, was not rabid and appeared to be in good condition despite being underweight.

Further tests are to be made in the effort to determine what caused the creature, whose kind are generally wary of humans, to make a daylight attack, especially since the wilderness park and nearby mountains contain abundant natural game, from deer down to field mice.