I work at night in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In three years I have had three mountain lion sightings. The other day we had some sheriffs up there who had a daytime sighting of two mountain lions together resting in the shade. It was surprising to hear of a daytime sighting like that. On another occasion there is an area I walk through at night and I used to make animal-like loud growlings until one night something cat-like growled back at me from behind a fenced-off area—and I have not done that since. I used to do this with the notion in mind of intimidating just this particular type of animal.
I’m up there unarmed, and generally not been cowed by the prospect of mountain lions. A few weeks ago someone at work got an amazing daytime picture of a mountain lion resting in the shade with a camera with a telescopic lense.
There are some people at the local university that want to tag and track these animals behavior—of which I am resistant to the idea. As they are such damnable fools, and don’t want them annoying our lions. These animals don’t like being seen. I saw one at dusk once skulking in an area where some people across the way and myself could see her. She skulked off in a manner that suggested to me she did not like the scrutiny at all of being seen when it was still daylight by people at a distance.
The line of discussion on this thread is getting me to look at the situation with a weary, and paranoid outlook. Not that there is anything wrong with paranoia, it being the contrary of complacency. Maybe I ought to take some extra measures of precaution. Hmm...
... Wow. You growled in an attempt to scare off one of the big cats?
That’s a REALLY dumb idea. They think that’s a challenge to fight from another cat.
You should. I am now in the San Diego area. In southern CA there have been several attacks and at least one death up near LA when a woman jogger was attacked.
These animals are extremely dangerous and are losing their fear of humans. A full-grown adult male may still intimidate them because of size, but a startled lion, or one that is very hungry, may attack. In the wild, they do take game as big as we are.
At the minimum, if hiking where lions are, I would have a stout hiking stick, some pepper spray / mace, and a good knife (fixed blade). And don't forget the cell phone.
Heck, down this way, even the coyotes are getting to be a menace, and not just for children when they are travelling together.