Sightings, Not Cougars, on the Rise in County

There is no evidence that mountain lions are becoming aggressive toward humans in San Diego County, despite the recent attack on a 6-year-old boy in southern Orange County, wildlife biologists and park rangers said.

Jim Lovewell, supervising park ranger for 1,000-acre Heise County Park in the Cuyamaca Mountains near Julian, said his staff hasn’t seen evidence of cougars in the park, despite four unconfirmed sightings of the animals this year by park visitors.

“We have gone out in the park looking for tracks or other evidence, such as carcasses, and have found no evidence of mountain lions,” Lovewell said. “We’ve called the state parks in the area, and they’ve told us the same thing.”

Ron Woychak, a wildlife biologist for the Palomar district of the Cleveland National Forest, said the last estimate of the mountain lion population on Palomar Mountain was made four years ago, when authorities figured there were 7 to 11 cats in the area.

He said the only consistent sighting of a mountain lion is of the same, aging “resident male” who apparently has caused no problems to livestock or humans.

“The number of sightings of mountain lions is increasing each year, but that’s because there are more people out there, not because there are more lions,” Woychak said, “and because people are reporting their sightings more often than they used to because of all the attention given to mountain lions these days.

“But the lions are staying in the same area. They’re not venturing out any farther than they had. It’s that there are more people making contact with them” because they are hiking farther into the backcountry, he said.

Russ LaJoie, a wildlife biologist for the Descanso district of the Cleveland National Forest, said that his office heard of a report of a sighting several days ago and that it was the first such report in about two years.

“They’re not a regular occurrence around here,” he said.

Concern about mountain lions increased with the Oct. 19 attack on a young boy in 7,500-acre Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, seven miles east of San Juan Capistrano. The youngster is recovering from having been clawed and bitten by the animal, which escaped.

On March 23, a 5-year-old girl was seriously injured when she was attacked in the same park. That animal was captured and killed.