Moody Mountain Lions and Coyotes

Posted on October 23, 2003 in Mountain Lions Nature Neighborhood

Last night we saw a low, shaggy canine cross the road just below Cook’s Corner. It was partly shadowed, so I am not sure if I saw a coyote or a fox.

I told my neighbors about seeing the mountain lion the other evening. Christina was out jogging about the same time. She saw five or six big tracks down in the wash. It was just before dusk: she was out running too late. An uneasy feeling came over her. “I could hear the kids playing in the backyards up on the hill,” she told me. “I got nervous. I don’t know what it was.”

When she reported her nervousness to a neighbor who hates anything that smacks of preservation or conservation, he laughed. “There was nothing to be afraid of!

Now she knows better than to believe in a blind follower of Fox News. There’s no harm in caution.

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A few weeks ago, a mountain lion was shot near San Juan Capistrano, about ten miles from here. According to KABC:

The animal sighting was reported by a man who was with his [six year old] son at the Ortega Equestrian Center.

Wilson said wardens threw rocks at the animal at first, but it was unfazed.

“It just sat and looked at them,” Wilson said. “It actually allowed them to get pretty close. They’re pretty sure they hit it because they were fairly close to it.”

The animal was wounded later by a state warden. It has not been seen since.

I do not believe that I saw the puma in question. This animal was healthy and afraid of me.

It strikes me as odd, however, that the lions are down here so early. We usually do not hear these reports until January.

What is driving the deer down from the mountain?

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Not the wildfires. They are too far away.