Alone in the Wilderness? Not If You Count the Cougar Nearby

Mountain lions hide near wilderness trails, closer to humans than previously thought, but are seldom seen by hikers or bikers, according to a three-year study by wildlife biologists.

“You can be very close to a lion and not know it,” said Walter Boyce, a UC Davis professor who directed the study, which will be released Tuesday.

Scientists from the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center studied 20 mountain lions and their contacts with people at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego County and the surrounding area as part of a study that ended Dec. 31. Fifteen of the animals were anesthetized and equipped with radio collars that tracked their movements.

Researchers were able to locate mountain lions in their dens, kill sites and food caches, providing a rare look into their lives in the wild. Boyce said it was the most extensive cougar study ever done in the nation.

The report found that cougars typically conceal themselves in dense vegetation 100 to 300 meters from a trail while resting during the day and move closer in the late afternoon, when there is a good chance people are around. The animals begin hunting about dusk and continue looking for food into the early dawn.

“People and lions tend to have opposite activity periods, decreasing the likelihood they will run into each other,” said Boyce. “If lions wanted to encounter people more frequently we would expect to find them closer to trails and roads during the day.”

While cougars try to avoid people, Boyce said, humans are most at risk during those times when cougars are hunting, Boyce said.

But the study’s conclusions do not fit with the time of day that a mountain lion attacked Mark Reynolds, who was killed Jan. 8 at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County. Law enforcement authorities said he was repairing the broken chain on his mountain bike about noon when a 110-pound male mountain lion pounced on him. Officials said a crouching Reynolds appeared as four-legged prey to the puma.

Boyce said Reynolds’ death shows how little researchers really know about why lions attack humans, despite the study’s findings that people are more at risk from dusk to dawn.

“Unfortunately, there is no common denominator to explain attacks against humans,” he said. “We can’t say why the lion identified the person as a prey.”

The cougar that killed Reynolds is believed to be the same one that later attacked another cyclist, Anne Hjelle, 30, who was released Friday from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Reynolds was the first person killed by a puma in California in almost a decade. In 1994, a woman was killed at Cuyamaca while bird-watching early in the morning. A second woman that year was fatally attacked while on a morning jog at Auburn State Recreation Area in Northern California.

Despite the Orange County attacks, the study done for the state Department of Parks and Recreation confirmed previous findings that encounters between cougars and people are rare. Before the maulings of Reynolds and Hjelle, there had been 10 recorded attacks on humans in the state since 1890, resulting in five deaths.

Six of the attacks and two deaths occurred since 1994.

The study failed to explain why attacks have increased in the past 10 years. But researchers said it could be because of increasing human encroachment on mountain lion habitats and the protected status the state extended to cougars in 1972, which allowed their numbers to increase. Wildlife experts estimate there are 4,000 to 6,000 cougars in the state.

Boyce said his study did not support the stance of researchers who said cougars are becoming more aggressive as they learn to live near humans in suburbs that were once wilderness. After the Orange County attacks, some suggested that mountain lions see humans as prey.

Boyce said cougars are attracted to areas populated by deer, their favorite prey, not people.

The biologist said he expected an increase in attacks as humans move into lion country and spend more time hiking and biking there.

But in an example of the difficulty researchers have in explaining cougar-human interaction, the study said the annual number of visitors to Cuyamaca park increased from 357,000 in 1992 to 500,000 each year of the study. Despite the increase in people using the 40-square-mile park, Boyce said no one was threatened by a puma.

“We had a lot of lions and people there at the same time, relatively close to each other, but there were no incidents. That’s mainly because they were active at different times of the day,” Boyce said.

The park, which is has been closed since last fall’s Cedar Fire, has more than 100 miles of trails for hikers, equestrians and cyclists. It also has two large family campgrounds and two equestrian camping facilities.

When the study of nine male and 11 female cougars ended last month, researchers found that only one of the study lions was still roaming the park. Researchers believe eight others cats left the park after the Cedar Fire, said Boyce.

Eleven died during the study. Four were shot by state or federal officials for threatening or killing domestic animals at nearby ranches; four died from disease or from unknown causes; one was killed by another cougar; one was killed by a vehicle; and one starved after being burned in the Cedar Fire.