In its sights

What does a mountain lion see when stretched out on a tree limb, long tail dangling, eyeing potential prey?

The killing of one mountain biker and the vicious mauling of another Thursday in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County has generated anxious curiosity about the wild cats roaming popular recreation areas.

Biologists, hunters and conservationists agree: If you want to understand a cougar, look at a tame kitty’s behavior.

“Take a stick and put a piece of yarn on it and wave it very fast in front of [a house cat]; he’s going to attack it,” said Chad Schearer, a licensed Montana outfitter and guide. “A mountain lion is the same. Someone on a mountain bike going at a rapid speed past a mountain lion is going to bring on an attack.”

Jogging or biking downhill on a trail at dawn or dusk may attract the attention of this nocturnal hunter, because the motion resembles that of fleeing prey. The cougar’s instinct may be to pounce.

“It’s like a giant house cat batting a ball around,” said Share Bond, of Protect R Wildlife, a Los Angeles-based wildlife preservation group.

Although cougars have excellent vision, they focus only on the general shape and size of potential prey, not details. An off-road vehicle loaded with people is too large to eat. Ditto for a group of mountain bikers. But a small child or a solo biker crouching low may look like a four-legged target.

“They have small noses and relatively small ears, but their eye sockets are huge, so they are clearly a visual predator,” said Becky Pierce, a biologist specializing in predators for the California Department of Fish and Game. “They have very limited ability to see in color, but are able to see in many shades of gray ... which helps in detecting motion at night.”

Using strong front legs and jaws, a cougar pounces horizontally to kill, aiming for the head or long neck of deer, sheep or other prey. It drags the kill to a secluded spot, then feeds in a specific order, always beginning with the heart or other vital organs. The food supply is partially buried, then consumed for up to a week.

Experts disagree on whether the huge San Diego wildfires drove more mountain lions north to the rural edge of Orange County, where a remnant population of seven was tracked in 1993, and where they have been sighted every year since, albeit rarely.

But if mule deer fled north through the Cleveland National Forest that straddles San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties, then the big cats may have followed. A mountain lion began killing livestock in Modjeska Canyon, near the site of last week’s attacks, about three weeks after the fires 100 miles south. That’s plenty of time to move north for an animal that regularly roams hundreds of miles, said Lee Fitzhugh, a UC Davis biologist.

Male mountain lions in particular need plenty of space -- a minimum of 100 to 150 square miles of home range per animal. Other than a brief mating period, mountain lions spend eight to 15 years alone in the wild, napping, feeding and on the prowl. That reclusive behavior has led to the mistaken notion that they are timid when in fact they are stealthy observers.

But Pierce and others stress that cougars are not eager for human contact and will run away if confronted or chased.

“The thing I would emphasize is that lions have chances to attack people every day, and they don’t,” said Pierce.

If one does pounce, though, the experts agreed: Fight back to survive. “Because once a mountain lion decides to attack you, it’s coming,” said Schearer.