I’m sure you heard something about the mountain lion shot in Berkeley near Chez Panisse at the end of August. It was slinking through the neighborhoods at 2 am and leaping over fences before a neighbor called the police. For a short period of time they hoped they could drive it out of the urban area into the park, but then gave up and killed it with a shotgun. It was a female, around 95 lbs, and surely the closest brush with a mountain lion that part of Berkeley has ever known.
Could something else have been done? Zara McDonald, of the Felidae Conservation Fund in Sausalito says no. Even if the police had used a tranquilizer gun they wouldn’t have known where to bring the big cat. Zara was the dynamic speaker at the most recent Valley of the Moon lecture. She’s involved with the Santa Cruz Moutain Lion project and co-founder of the Bay Area Puma Project that is in its early stages. It is estimated that, given the population of humans we have now around the state, our cat numbers are ‘at capacity’. We don’t have room for many more, although we clearly need to figure out how to take care of the ones we have.
Enter Jim Hale (remember him from the article in Bay Nature?). He wants to develop a mobile crisis unit that can respond the next time a Big Cat wanders where he shouldn’t be. He would like to train the local police, network with wildlife advocates and educate the public about the value of these animals. My dinner guest last night, Cindy Spring of Close to Home, wants to help, and Gary Bogue thinks it’s an idea worth getting behind and wants to be involved.
This is an idea in its infancy, but one that these people are passionate about. I know we’ll hear more about it soon. I thought I’d give you an initial glimpse so you can see how these things get started. Good people with good ideas getting together to make a difference.
I’m told that (to the untrained eye) sleek mountain lions are somewhat ‘sexier’ than lumpy beavers, so I have every faith they’ll get lots of help!
