State Park Closed After Cougar Menaces Bikers : Wildlife: Closure is the second in four months because of an encounter with a mountain lion. Trackers are trying to find and kill or remove it.

For the second time in four months, areas of this wooded park 45 miles east of San Diego have been closed after after a German shepherd-size mountain lion came within a few feet of three people riding trail bikes.

One of the bikers climbed a tree to escape the cat, which then crouched at the bottom of the tree and swished its tail until it was scared away by barking sounds made by another biker hiding behind a bush.

By Sunday morning, signs warning “Mountain Lion Encounter, Area Closed” were posted in the southern region of the park.

Trackers hired by the state Department of Fish and Game scoured the forest Monday for the cat, with orders to kill it or shoot it with a tranquilizer dart so it can be relocated. The trackers and their dogs will be back today.

In September, the park was closed for two weeks as trackers tried unsuccessfully to locate a mountain lion that had menaced horseback riders.

The day the park reopened, the lion re-emerged and bit a 10-year-old girl in front of her terrified family. The lion was chased and shot to death by two park rangers.

The rangers found the experience emotionally wrenching and were given administrative duty for several days and sent to a police-trained psychiatrist.

The decision on killing or tranquilizing the animal now being sought will be made by the trackers when they spot the cat, Fish and Game spokesman Pat Moore said.

If the cat is wounded or acts aggressively, or if the trackers feel threatened, it will be shot. Otherwise, it may be hit with a tranquilizing dart, as was a mountain lion that was cornered in the San Bernardino National Forest recently.

Moore said the encounter is probably the result of an increasing mountain lion population and an increasing number of park visitors in the same forest.

“There are more animals and more squeezing of their territory,” said Ken Smith, head ranger at the park, located in the Cleveland National Forest.

Sightings of mountain lions are on the rise throughout Southern California. In 1986, two people, in separate incidents, were mauled by mountain lions at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park near San Juan Capistrano.

One reason for the cougar population boom is thought to be a ban on mountain lion hunting endorsed by state voters in the mid-1980s.

Rangers believe there are six to 10 mountain lions in Cuyamaca Rancho park. Mountain lions are solitary creatures with defined hunting territories, and the lion spotted on New Year’s weekend may be a female or immature male unable to claim a hunting area from a bigger animal.

“It could be an animal who has become frustrated in finding a territory,” Smith said. “It may have decided that humans aren’t all that bad to be around. . . . Maybe as it gets hungrier, it could decide that humans are good to eat too.”

Tentative plans are to reopen Green Valley Campground and surrounding hiking trails on Wednesday whether or not the predator is found.

Despite the incident, some campers remained in areas that were not closed.

“If you’re careful, a mountain lion isn’t going to hurt you,” said Duane Milliken, a landscaper from Coronado who lived in Alaska for 20 years. “Moose kill more people than mountain lions.”

Still, just to be prepared, Milliken kept two hatchets near his tent.