As Cougar Kittens Grow, So Do Safety Fears : Environment: Next year more than half a dozen will be claiming territory near an Orange County park where two children were mauled.

By the end of next year, eight or nine mountain lion “teen-agers” will be striking out on their own to stake out their territory near Orange County’s Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park--where two children were mauled by mountain lions in 1986.

And there could be some problems with the young cougars, according to Paul Beier, who has been studying the lions as part of a county study.

Beier noted that cougars stay with their mothers for about the first year and a half and then move out on their own. During the first few months of independence, he said, the “teen-agers” are inexperienced hunters, so they will sometimes take easy prey. That includes dogs and cats, and sometimes even humans.

By monitoring seven of the area’s cats--one male and six females--with radio collars, the study team has confirmed three litters of kittens that were born last summer and will be maturing in the next year.

Beier said two of the litters are within five miles of San Clemente and the other litter is about 2 1/2 miles from new housing developments in Dove Canyon, Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Because of the discovery of the new litters, Beier is asking the Orange County Board of Supervisors for a three-year extension of the two-year study that is scheduled to end in February.

“We want to get some idea of what these youngsters do and where they go,” Beier said. I expect one or two of them will get shot for getting into trouble. They’re going to make mistakes.”

When the lions mature, the area around Caspers Park will experience “a marked increase in cougar activity,” Beier said in a report, “and late 1990 and early 1991 promise to present conditions of high cougar density, similar to that which existed in 1986, when the lion attacks occurred.”

A 5-year-old girl was seriously mangled by a cougar and a 6-year-old boy was attacked at Caspers Park that year. Because of the attacks, the park was temporarily closed and a permanent ban on overnight camping and trail hiking for children under 18 were instituted. Initially, adults were required to camp and hike in groups of two or more, but that regulation was later dropped.

Park spokesmen say that every few months there is a confirmed lion sighting by Caspers visitors. The researchers notify park officials if a collared lion wanders into the park.

Public safety is a major concern, Beier said. “I wouldn’t want one in my neighborhood. If they come into people’s neighborhoods they should be tranquilized and moved a couple of miles (instead of being killed). He’s a teen-ager. Let’s give him a second chance.”

However, Beier said, “you couldn’t ask an animal control officer not to shoot it a second time.” When a human encounters a lion, “chances are (the lion is) going to run away. The worst thing someone can do is run away (from the lion),” he said. People need to act aggressive and throw rocks at the lions to scare them away. “This makes lions afraid of people, which is good.”

Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez, whose district covers much of the lions’ territory, said Beier’s work has been an important element in county planning and “it would be in our best interest to continue the study.”

Beier said he hopes to put radio collars on the kittens and monitor them to learn how the young lions respond to land development--development that Beier would like to see restrained. He said he has lived in Orange County for almost two years and “I still can’t believe it. They bulldoze a square mile at a time.”

As humans encroach on the lions’ territory, he said, the lions are being pushed farther into the mountains, lowering their numbers. “But I doubt anything from this study is going to stop the bulldozers,” he said.