The recent shooting of a mountain lion in Redwood City reminds us all that human vs. wildlife encounters often end poorly for the wildlife. Rob Roth wanted to do a report incorporating Martinez as a ‘success story’ for how to accommodate wildlife. Only one sentence of our conversation made it into the report, but I gave him lots of footage. Check it out.
So lets talk about that mountain lion. Apparently it was seen wandering around town hours before and authorities warned residents to stay home or evacuate with a reverse 911 call. (Evacuate? Really?) The mountain lion was eventually trapped between two fences in a sideyard. The Fish & Game swat team swept the neighborhood but eventually found it in the crevice between them. They had brought tranquilizer guns with them but said the lion was growling and hard to get a single good shot, so they just shot it many times with regular guns until it was dead.
The reports say authorities had no choice, and certainly there’s no evidence of any being exercised. “We had to kill it because if we shot it with a tranquilizer and missed it woulda’ been really mad and dangerous. It’s not a problem shooting and missing with regular guns because we have LOTS of bullets. They hand’em out like party favors at Fish & Game.”
Well, the world is safe for poodles once again. And we are missing a mountain lion which nobody will miss. If you want to learn more about these amazing animals, you should come to Earth Day at the John Muir Site where Zara McDonald of Felidae will be our featured speaker. She has been tracking and monitoring wildcats around the bay and is starting the east bay puma project this year. She will tell you the truth about whether you should evacuate your home during a puma sighting, and whether a mountain lion should be shot for growling.
In the mean time, Jon took a midnight walk to the place where the beaver dam used to be and said the filter for the flow device has reappeared! It’s sitting just downstream of the primary dam. Thank you to whoever found it and returned it!
