More Mountain Lions Seen Prowling Suburbs

Sightings of mountain lions have increased recently along foothill communities from La Canada Flintridge to La Verne, some in residential areas.

Animal officials say the sightings seem to be the result of an escalating population of the big cats throughout the foothills.

“We’re getting an awful lot more mountain lion sightings in that foothills area,” said Gerald Spansail, the Los Angeles region’s captain for the state Department of Fish and Game. “It’s just going to keep escalating and get to be a bigger and bigger issue in these fringe areas.”

Spansail said he can recall at least half a dozen sightings reported in recent months in residential neighborhoods in the San Gabriel Valley. He said many more go unreported by residents in the hills who consider mountain lions part of life there.

On Jan. 30, two women driving on Highland Drive in La Canada Flintridge spotted a young mountain lion walking during the daytime along the street near Linda Vista Avenue, police said.

A La Canada High School student also reported seeing the young cat.

Reports of sightings also have come from residents along the foothills in Glendora and La Verne.

Exact dates or circumstances of the sightings were generally unavailable because neither police nor state game officials have kept records of the reports. But they said the increase in sightings is undeniable.

One of the women in the La Canada Flintridge sighting told sheriff’s deputies that they were driving down Highland toward Linda Vista Avenue, when they saw a young mountain lion about the size of large German shepherd. The cat jumped into the Flint Canyon Wash.

Fish and game officials estimate that the mountain lion population statewide has tripled to more than 6,000 since a 1971 law made it illegal to hunt the animals. Mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas, are very territorial, Spansail said. With their population growing, some have been forced to venture to the fringes of the suburbs, he added. “A male mountain lion can have a territory as big 100 square miles,” Spansail said.

The state’s mountain lion population has risen particularly since 1990, when voters passed Proposition 117, giving the animal special protected status and prohibiting game wardens from controlling its population, game officials have said.

But that protection has come under attack in the last year after a mountain lion fatally mauled a hiker at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, 40 miles east of San Diego, and another killed a jogger in the Auburn State Recreation Area, 45 miles northeast of Sacramento.

A bill in the state Legislature would put a measure on the ballot allowing the Fish and Game Department to manage mountain lions as they do other wild animals to protect people and livestock. Currently, state officials cannot hunt a mountain lion unless it poses a serious threat to people. They say a hunting permit can only be issued once an attack is documented.

Wildlife experts provide the following advice for people who come across mountain lions:

* Do not approach the lion, run away, crouch or bend down.

* Instead, stand and face the lion, making eye contact. Pick up any children around without bending.

* Do all you can to appear larger: Raise your arms. Open up your jacket if you have one. Throw what you have at the animal without crouching. Wave your arms slowly and speak firmly in a loud voice.