Mountain Lions in Whiting Again

Posted on July 17, 2012 in Mountain Lions Neighborhood

Rangers blocked the gates at Whiting Ranch Wilderness. I knew something was up. When I passed Concourse Park in my truck, I saw three trucks and a small crowd of rangers at the entrance gate. So I stopped. “Please tell me that there hasn’t been another mountain lion attack.

No, this time it was only “an incident”. And when I pieced together the details, a most amusing incident it proved to be though the bikers involved probably did not find it so. A mountain lion had spooked some park-users along the short but tenuous Serrano Cow Trail, not once, but twice.

According to a local news site:

A video of a mountain lion in the park was posted online over the weekend prompted state Department of Fish and Game officials to search for the big cat ((Isn’t the Internet powerful?)), which did not leave the area even after it was fired upon with beanbag-type rounds in an attempt to scare it off, O’Neil told the Orange County Register.

“During the investigation, they spotted the mountain lion very close to the trail and unwilling to move,” said O’Neil. “Park rangers closed the park as a precaution while DFG officers continued the investigation.”

Fish and Game managed to capture the beast using a massive “Have-A-Heart” trap baited with a piece of beef. Though I told my Facebook users that I feared the worst for the lion, Fish and Game seems to be following a So-you-wanna-be-around-humans-we’ll-let-you-live-around-humans” policy and sending it to a zoo.

For my own experiences with mountain lions, check here.

Here’s the video that precipitated the Fish and Game search of the wilderness. Most people around here would rather that they removed the coyote — those eat our cats and dogs: