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I come from a ranching family, and the area I live in is not as remote or nearly as wild as Alaska, but it is all ranches, woods and acreage neighborhoods. We do not have the California-type predator problems because most people here have lived in the country for many years, although the gated neighborhoods have lots of transplanted townies.

After being nearly hunted to extinction here, mountain lions/cougars were quietly re-introduced to this part of Texas some 30 or more years ago, and are still a protected species. Because there was no big fanfare about the thing, people simply took better care to fence or bring in livestock at night-or put a couple of donkeys or llamas out with them. Llamas are very popular for that purpose, and are mean, fearless creatures that probably would try to bite and kick a tiger to death, never mind a cougar-they are very effective at limiting loss of livestock to predators like coyotes and mountain lions-we don’t have bears or wolves here.

I hike and spend a lot of time in the area of the woods I live next to several times a week. There are two resident cougars there who prey upon the almost-tame deer and the townies’ well-fed, slow domestic pets which are allowed to run loose and unfenced-no livestock for them. All the same, I carry a big walking stick, do not use headphones when listening to my music, do not hike alone in areas where there are cougar tracks nor ride my mountain bike on trails in those woods, and I never, EVER run or jog.

A bit of extra trouble, yes-but well worth the caution to enjoy unspoiled, car-free forest im my own back yard. Animals were here before people, period-anyone who isn’t able to co-exist without wanting to exterminate them needs to live in a city and do their jogging, walking, biking etc. on the sidewalk or in a city park.