How Many Mountain Lions Are Too Many?

Terence P. Jeffrey on Mar 27, 2024

Between its 1990 passage and 2022, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, mountain lions perpetrated 19 "verified" attacks on individuals in California. Three of these attacks were fatal.

On April 23, 1994, a 40-year-old woman went running on a trail east of Auburn, California. As reported by the Sacramento Bee, she became "the first person killed by a mountain lion in California since 1909," when she "was bitten on the neck and the head."

Eight months later, the Los Angeles Times ran this headline about a woman who was found dead on a trail east of San Diego: "Slain Mountain Lion Is One That Killed Hiker."

"Authorities confirmed Monday that the mountain lion shot Saturday night is the animal that killed a 58-year-old woman who was hiking and bird watching at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park," said the paper.

A decade later, on Jan. 11, 2004, an Associated Press story carried this headline: "Authorities confirm lion killed cyclist."

"Initial tests conducted on a male mountain lion suspected of killing one biker and injuring another revealed human skin tissues found in its stomach, authorities said," the AP reported.

"Footprints taken in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County had the same measurements and officials are fairly certain the cougar is responsible for both of Thursday's attacks," it said.

This week, a California mountain lion once again killed one and injured another.

"According to the El Dorado Sheriff's Office, dispatchers received a desperate 911 call around 1:15 p.m. Saturday from Darling Ridge and Skid roads in a rural part of the county about 30 minutes north of Placerville," reported SFGATE.com. "The caller was an 18-year-old who said he and his older brother had just been attacked by a mountain lion. During the fight for their lives, the two brothers were separated, and the young man wasn't sure where his 21-year-old brother was."

"About 15 minutes into the search," said SFGATE.com, "they encountered a 'crouched mountain lion next to a subject on the ground.' They fired their guns to scare the animal off and rushed to help the man, but he was already dead."

In 2022, as reported by NBC Bay Area and the Associated Press, a mountain lion was discovered -- before school started -- in a classroom at Pescadero High School on the San Francisco Peninsula.

The Mountain Lion Foundation estimates there are 4,500 mountain lions in the state of California.

"In California, mountain lions are a specially protected non-game species; following the passage of the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990 (Proposition 117). Mountain lions have not been hunted in California since 1972," says the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Perhaps it's time to start hunting these lions again, before they can hunt down more people.

Terence P. Jeffrey is the investigative editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation. To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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