You are correct-mountain lions like to live in the woods near water in rural areas like the one i live in-near a river and a lake, lots of trees and rocky bluffs with small caves, plenty of deer and small game to eat-I see their tracks all the time on the river bank when I go hiking at the edge of the woods, carrying my bear spray-lots of photos of them at night on trail cams of my neighbors, too-they are protected-not enough of them to have a season on yet...
As long as they have their natural prey, they only seem interested in trash/food scraps people leave out and the domestic animals they attack and eat are chickens not rounded up at night, and the dogs and cats left outside to roam around by owners who moved here from the city and don’t know how to live around wild animals-mountain lion takeout...
Now that black bears have been re-introduced, I guess those people will start putting out leftovers for the bears to eat, too, then bitch and complain when the bears rip through their trash, attack and eat their pets, etc...
The last recorded grizzly/black bear in Colorado was like 1956. For some reason, these bears migrated from Wyoming through Colorado to New Mexico. We found one, but the wildlife folks didn’t want tot recognize it because budget cuts would prevent investigation.