Paws Up, Don’t Shoot

The response to the recent killing of 10 alpacas (Vicugna pacos) in one day and then a goat and an alpaca by one of our resident male mountain lions (Puma concolor) in the exurban wonderland that is the Santa Monica Mountains has prompted a massive public outcry. In the immediate wake of those predation events, the owner of the then-lifeless alpacas sought and quickly received a depredation permit which grants legal permission to kill a mountain lion that threatens people or livestock to hunt down. Securing a state approval for killing this mountain lion named P45 is essential as mountain lions are a special status (protected) species in the state of California, their routine hunting banned since 1967. A scheduled public hearing slated to be an overview of potential methods and technologies to minimize the probability of mountain lion-livestock interactions quickly evolved into a massive community event.

Predation Brought Attention

My family and I were out of town this Thanksgiving weekend. As we returned to southern California I caught wind of the multiple predation events over the weekend and the suspected involvement of one of the male lions that our National Park Service colleagues have routinely tracked with GPS colors for the past several years (the 45th one actually, hence the “P45” moniker). Needless to say I headed over to the just-announced public hearing this evening with an eye to record the discussion for my university lectures on managing coastal wildlife along the wildlands-urban interface and on general mountain lion management across California. I had no idea this event would turn out to be as massive as it was. I was, of course being an “absent minded professor.” I should clearly have realized the ancient equation of:

Santa Monicas + mountain lions = public/media firestorm

 

First Signs of Something Unusual

The first sign of something beyond the usual was unfolding at this hearing was the tremendous backup I hit when still about a half mile away from the entrance to Paramount Ranch, the site of the hearing. Normally this stretch of Cornell Road in Agoura Hills is pretty car-free this time of night (the hearing was slated to begin at 7pm). But tonight it was bumper to bumper traffic on both sides of this two lane, country road.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I lost count of the cars after I got up past 200. Walking up to the barn where the hearing was taking place already 15 minutes late, I began passing folks walking BACK to their cars, clearly frustrated by the overflow capacity and the lack of ability to get inside and properly hear the speakers. After a few minutes some of the crowd turned a bit unruly and started asking for additional speakers outside or for the facilitators to turn up the volume of the existing sound system. The Park Service happily complied and cranked up the sound system just before Jeff Sikitch launched into his brief overview of mountain lion natural history and conservation in the Santa Monica Mountains. That volume and Jeff’s engaging presentation squelched the burbling unrest and brought the crowd (now at least 350 by my conservative count, with something like 150 of outside in the crisp, 45° F air on this cloudless Wednesday night and unable to squeeze into the jam-packed hearing room).

A Lion-Friendly Crowd

The tone of meeting was cemented during Jeff’s presentations with several bouts of loud clapping and cheers whenever he would mention wildlife crossings, the natural behavior of the mountain lions, or the fact that these illusive animals rarely interact with humans and generally seek to avoid them at all costs. As the evening would progress and elected officials (e.g. Linda Parks, Ventura County Supervisor) or their proxies (e.g. Tim Pershing from Assemblyman Richard Bloom’s office) joined in the chorus for reasoned management and lion-centric responses to this and related crises the crowd got louder and louder. More emboldened with each speaker. From my vantage outside, the commentary was constant and clearly one-sided. This crowd was vociferously favoring mountain lion protection and decidedly unhappy about the possibility of one of our remaining terrestrial apex predator in the Santa Monicas being killed.

Additional Speakers

Public Comments

The crowd’s anger began to climax as Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Superintendent David Szymanski closed the formal presentations and invited the public to chime in with their comments and questions. His imploring the audience to remain respectful and hear all sides on this issue got little traction. The second public speaker tossed out a spark into the psychological kerosene of the room and those that followed were generally content to fan those flames. Clearly many in attendance saw this event as something of a unique opportunity to advocate for wider protections for mountain lions and broader support for general conservation efforts across the region.

Contrarians

The most interesting parts of the public input came when the representative for the depredation permit-possessing owner of the dead alpacas and (a few minutes later) a local homeowner spoke in support of killing/removing P45. The crowd was having any of it.

Breakthrough?

Between the jeers and strong reactions, a possible compromise was at first not well understood. It seemed to take the crowd a minute to realize that the permit holder had agreed to hold off with the hunting down of P45 for tonight, ultimately announcing a press conference on her land tomorrow morning. The Park Service and others offered additional help and support, either in design of predator-exclusion structures or funding for such technologies/materials. In short, there seemed to be broad agreement that no one was happy to kill a mountain lion and most content to work towards an equitable compromise that might allow P45 to remain in the Santa Moncias (we should note the landowner had previously lost livestock to mountain lion predation and had worked with local experts previously to try to minimize conflicts with the predators).

Solutions Already Exist

At the risk of sounding a bit pollyanna-isa, we do have existing solutions to keep mountain lions and livestock separated.  The best for containable livestock are these totally enclosed pens shown below.  For wider-roaming livestock the best answer seems to be Anatolian dogs (as someone who works in eastern Anatolia, I can attest to these hard core, shepherding canines).

Historical Overview of Mountain Lion Management in California

Questions

There were many questions and (judging by some of the comments and the way those questions were phased from both sides of the issue) a clear lack of understanding about some key aspects of mountain lion natural history. Many of these were addressed by Jeff’s presentation or in my regular mountain lion lecture (see above).

Note: I’ll be updating these over the next few hours when a have a bit more time.

Is it unusual for mountain lions to kill several animals at once?

No.

Are mountain lions a threat to people?

Very rarely if ever.  These are wild animals, but these guys strongly avoid people at almost every turn.

Is it bad to kill mountain lions?

Generally yes, but we do issue many depredation permits each year (see my above lecture on mountain lions).  Killing one is unfortunate, but not necessarily the end of the world.  The exception is in places like the Santa Monica Mountains where roads greatly restrict the ability of mountain lions (and a whole host of other critters) to disperse into or out of the Santa Monica Mountains.  Basically terrestrial critters need to run a gauntlet of death if they want to get in or out of these road-restricted coastal mountains.  See either of my presentations below (a short presentation on our long-term road kill study or one of my longer lectures on road kill):

 

Growing Media Attention

This story seems to be showing no signs of stopping.  A few examples are below:

 

Note: I will update this blog post as new development arise.