By Seth Richardson
On Monday morning, a mountain lion was seen hunting near Manitou Springs Elementary School. Although school officials and police used extra vigilance during the day and police removed the raccoon the lion had killed, hoping that it won’t return, the attitudes of both the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife and the school Principal Russ Vogel towards this event are disturbingly blithe to the danger to the public this lion poses.
Vogel is quoted in a Gazette story by R. Scott Rappold as saying “We try to keep it in perspective for (students), that it’s part of nature and a beautiful animal that we need to be safe and smart around.” Yes, mountain lions are beautiful, and dangerous, and to be “safe and smart” about them when they come near a schoolyard in a densely populated area like Manitou Springs we need to do one thing: track down and kill that lion immediately.
Randy Hampton, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife attempted to, as is usual for the Division, shift the blame to residents who “feed little critters” in their backyards which “jeopardizes the safety” of the neighborhood and that “a bird feeder can become a mountain lion feeder.” While it is true that the public shouldn’t be feeding wildlife, mountain lions don’t show up in foothills or mountain subdivisions or near schools because people are feeding the birds, they show up in the urban/wildland interface zone because lion population pressures in the back country and abundant prey sources in the urban/wildland interface bring them there.
There are many reasons why this is so, not the least of which are local regulations that prohibit deer hunting in or near mountain subdivisions and a misguided “can’t we all just get along” bunny-hugger attitude about the presence of mountain lions near human populations.
But here’s the dirty little fact that Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife is loathe to tell the public: Whenever a mountain lion sees another living creature it’s engaging in a careful calculation and it’s making a decision that boils down to “can I attack, kill and eat this creature without being injured or killed, or do I need to flee from this creature because it’s more powerful and dangerous than I am?”
And that includes encounters with human beings, and in this case, elementary school children.
There is no wild animal in Colorado that is more dangerous to human beings, and especially children, than a mountain lion that has become habituated to human beings and their activities, because such lions no longer fear humans and are therefore easily capable of viewing them as prey when the opportunity arises, as it has here in Colorado. In the past 20 years, the three fatal attacks by mountain lions in Colorado have been on small children or, in one case, a high school student running alone on a trail in Clear Creek County.
But the chances of a fatal encounter with a lion go up dramatically when habituated lions start feeding in human-populated areas. It starts with the lion, for whatever reason, predating on family pets, and the more comfortable the lion becomes around human activity, the greater the danger to humans.
In the back country of Colorado, where mountain lions are both hunted by and are not habituated to humans, it’s very rare to ever see one up close. Ask any lion hunter how difficult it is to find, much less get close enough to shoot one with a rifle in the back country if you disbelieve this.
But in places like Boulder County, mountain lion “encounters” in the foothills, and even inside the city limits of Boulder, are not in the least bit uncommon. Lions have been seen stalking hikers and runners on Boulder’s extensive trail system and have even been seen perched in trees overlooking popular trails, just waiting for a meal.
But the bunny-huggers in Boulder, and the DOP&W, go right on insisting that your odds of being attacked by a mountain lion are very small, statistically speaking. And they are right, but that means nothing if YOU are the one the lion picks for dinner.
The “experts” constantly repeat the mantra that if you encounter a lion you should “look big” and “back away slowly” and take other defensive actions, but what they never, ever tell you to do…unless pressed, is take out your handgun and shoot the lion dead on the spot.
Now, relatively few people carry guns when going for a day-hike in the foothills, and I like to call those who do “Darwinian Winners.” Everyone else is a candidate for natural selection.
So, here’s some advice: If you are a Darwinian Winner, and you see a mountain lion while out hiking, or walking down your residential street in Manitou Springs, and you can see anything at all but the lion’s rear end as it flees from you, you’re in jeopardy. If the lion is looking at you, crouching down or approaching you, you are in immediate mortal danger because a mountain lion can cover 40 feet horizontally with a single leap, which means that even if you’re 50 yards away, you’re about four seconds away from being taken down. If you are close enough to hit it with your handgun, no matter what the range, you should do so, immediately, and don’t stop shooting till it’s dead. Do society and your neighbors a big favor by removing that dangerous predator from the community permanently. And if you do, and some nitwit from the state tries to say you weren’t justified in shooting the lion and gives you a ticket, let me know and I’ll provide the tape recordings of state wildlife officials admitting that it’s perfectly lawful to kill a mountain lion if you feel you’re in danger. And as I said, if the lion is anywhere close to you, sees you, and fails to immediately flee from you, you are absolutely in imminent danger.
The actions of the school in response to this lion sighting of having “more staff than usual outside on the grounds” was grossly deficient and negligent unless every one of those staff members was armed with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with #4 buck shot, which is highly unlikely. A lion could easily dart out of the brush and grab a child and be gone before anyone without a gun could do anything effective.
Fifty years ago, a mountain lion sighting in or near any town in Colorado would have resulted in a posse being formed of armed citizens and lion-hunters with dogs who would have tracked down and killed that lion no matter how long it took, which is the only rational and reasonable response to an invading, habituated dangerous mountain lion around our children.
Mountain lions have their place, and it’s far away from human settlements, in the vast areas of forest and wilderness that Colorado affords them as proper habitat. There, they should be respected and left alone, and carefully managed. But when a lion ventures into human territory, it needs to die, and die as quickly as anyone with a firearm can make it dead, because merely by being accustomed to human beings and their habitat, they have become too dangerous for society to tolerate a moment longer than it takes to find and kill them. That’s just the hard, cold fact.
Until this lion is tracked down and killed, no resident of Manitou Springs should leave their child at a bus stop in the early morning without an armed guard there to protect them, and outside activities at schools should be curtailed completely unless the school also provides for an adequate number of trained and armed playground guards.
Let’s hope nothing bad happens, but let’s prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.
And let’s find and kill that lion.
© 2012 Altnews
Well, Seth, eight months have gone by, how many children did the Beast of Manitou devour? I am so surprised that you didn’t mention cantaloupes as the real beast from the garden. Colorado cantaloupes killed more people in a month in 2011 than mountain lions and wolves combined in a 120 years. Jeffrey Dahmer ate more people in 13 years than lion and wolves in 120 years.
“The Beast in the Garden” is pretty much considered pulp fiction by cougar biologists. You are apparently unaware of Sweanor et al “Puma responses to close approaches by researchers,” and most importantly, that which shows your apparent lack of knowledge is that you did not put “slavering fangs” into your article. That would have convinced me of your research.
“Lack of fear of man,” is a trite and over-used excuse to kill wildlife. President Theodore Roosevelt, no stranger to hunting, wrote: “It is true, as I have said, that a cougar will follow a man; but then a weasel will sometimes do the same thing. Whatever the cougar’s motive, it is certain that in the immense majority of cases there is not the slightest danger of his attacking the man he follows.” (BiblioBazaar (2009) The Roosevelt Book: Selections from the Writings of Theodore Roosevelt, p 183)
A more scientific view states:
“Low levels of confirmed interactions coupled with exceedingly low interaction rates calls into question the validity of management decisions based on interaction reports while suggesting the perceived level of risk from cougars in residential areas disproportionally exceeds actual risk.” (University of Washington (2010) Cougar Ecology, Behavior, and Interactions with People in a Wildland-Urban Environment in Western Washington, Brian N. Kertson, Abstract)
A friend of mine sent me the following in November: “Thanks Bob, hey my wife and I went for a hike on Saturday in the snow above Lake Wenatchee; on our way out we saw a young cougar which stepped off the road and stood and stared at us for 10-15 minutes only 30-40 yards away… awesome!”
BTW Bear Spray is more effective than bullets in wildlife encounters.
Seth Richardson,
You are an idiot, first off. Your claim of mountain lions not being in the wilderness is idiotic. First, where is the line between “wild” and “human populated?” Many people pay good money to live in a house that is on the side of a mountain, when they put their house their does it automatically become non-wild? Man and nature have got to learn to live together or their won’t be a man left, nature will win every time. Seth with your rational 1. Everyone should own a gun.
2. If the animal/bug etc has any teeth, kill on site
You sound like sort of a pussy to me, just saying.
I’m scared speechless; of teachers and citizens, armed with shotguns, out to “find and kill that lion”. Have you watched too many reruns of “Jaws” perchance?
No it is not wilderness but it is habitat for deer which lions mainly hunt. One cannot avoid deer west of I-25 anymore. Humans have no claim to “territory” especially when it comes to wildlife. How absurd. Very few humans would be able to kill an attacking lion with a firearm either. Humans have caused this out of balance situation so now humans must endure it. Killing a lion or two will do nothing as there are more lions due to the deer population. So think of it this way: Would any parent go up on Rampart Range and drop their child off and drive away? No and they should realize they are in lion country and thus conduct themselves accordingly. A 7-11 down the street does not mean one is safe. A lion was spotted so be alert. Remember that it is true lions are rarely seen but they are there. DOW cannot fix it, killing one or two won’t fix it, I have hunted this region for 30 plus years and I have seen more wildlife in one day on the west side than in all those years combined. Deer are not tame either and it is not the antlers that they use but their hooves. Those hooves are fast and sharp. The deer are quite brazen strolling down the middle of the street and I have seen a few bears in trees with a crowd of idiots below gawking. When I pointed out that it was a bad idea to do so I quickly realized it was deaf ears I was speaking to. Remember the great west side buffalo hunt? “Nuff said.
Why must humans “endure” this situation? We are the apex predators on the planet and we have the tools to deal with threats to human life, including habituated lions.
Yes, the problem is deer, and we can deal with that too, but there is no reason to allow habituated lions to predate in our habitat and place our children at risk. Such lions are relatively few in number and killing them will not substantially affect the balance of the lion population in Colorado.
According to Division of Wildlife records, some 200 lions are killed every year by ranchers, the DOW and others as nuisance animals. A few more habituated lions won’t tip the balance one bit.
And yes, I’d shoot a deer that’s attacking a human as well.
One would think that more attention would be given to the numerous, dangerous dogs off-leash in these same neighborhoods than a single wild feline. Hardly a week goes by here on the front range without a vicious dog attack, normally on a small child or old person. While rarely fatal the injuries to the victims are always severe and often leave life-long physical and mental scars.
Between 2006 and 2008 there were 88 dog attack fatalities in the United States. If dog owners would simply obey the leash laws many, if not all, of these fatalities could have been avoided.
As is usually the case, our collective short-term attention span seems to be focused on the wrong critter!
We do give vicious dogs attention. When they are found, they are impounded and often killed, just as habituated lions should be.
Lions, Tigers and Bears oh my! Who cares about statistics etc. The fact of the matter is we as humans continue to expand into wildlife habitat. Everyone wants a piece of the pie, but not happy with just one piece, bigger than better than! The D.O.W. has failed and so have we, but yet one wants to blame the animals. I live on the west side and on the average I have 3 bears a week in my yard, one time I had 8 different bears at the same time. I’m a hunter have been my whole life, I didn’t run and grab my rifle and start shooting, nor did I go out and Treadwell them either. It’s a fact of life here in Colorado amongst other state in the U.S. that we have pushed into the animals domain. Silly cats they should no that we owned the land didn’t they learn anything from the Native Americans. Deal with it or move to L.A. or Chicago and deal with the real animals that occupy city streets.
To add…
Sometimes no matter how carefully we plan, no matter how many precautions we take, “bad” things still happen, Seth. Sometimes you do everything right, and it still goes wrong. What is “overreaction” is as nebulous as what is “underreaction”.
If it was my kid that was attacked, I suspect I would be asking what more could have been done too. It’s human nature to second-guess, and blame. The American culture does not readily accept the uncertain nature of existence, and we certainly don’t do well with grief.
The best we can ever do is try for a reasonable balance .. to be appropriately proactive without giving into overzealous reaction. Wilfull ignorance is bad. But so is paranoia.
“Appropriately proactive” means killing habituated mountain lions whenever and wherever they are found and leaving the un-habituated ones to their own devices in the wilderness.
Habituated mountain lions and urban/suburban human populations are not compatible.
So where are the dead kids, Seth? Given the whole “sky is falling” nature of your alarmist editorial, surely we would have seen the fallout by now. I’m sure all those parents who hired “armed guards” to watch their kids at the busstop would like to know. Tell me .. can schools completely un”curtail” outdoor activities yet? You go ahead and bash “bunny huggers” adn the DOP&W. Has it ever occured to you that they didn’t UNDERreact? That maybe you OVERreact?
Oh, we’ll see the fallout eventually, as they did in Clear Creek County when a high school student was killed and eaten by a mountain lion, as told in the outstanding book “Beast in the Garden.”
Better to overreact to a habituated mountain lion than chance a death or injury to a human being. There are plenty of non-habituated mountain lions out there to take it’s place.
Having lived in mountain lion and bear country for over 45 years, raised 4 children in this environment and about 8 dogs, and only having seen a mt. lion once in that time, I have to say I fear the posse of men and their guns much more than the threat of a mt. lion! I’ve also been licensed by the Division of Wildlife for a period of nine years to rehabilitate orphaned and injured raccoons, so I am not ignorant of the dangers of wildlife. Using common sense is my advice. Joan B. Muir
Luck is not good or prudent planning I’m afraid.
The Riviera Times…
[...]Manitou schoolchildren are in real danger – The Broadside : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
Well, Zen, when it’s YOUR child that is the one taken, I’m sure you’ll feel differently.
I see no reason whatsoever to give lions the benefit of the doubt to a dangerous predator that has become habituated to human beings and is invading human habitat.
There are plenty of mountain lions in Colorado who stay where they belong, and it’s not going to endanger the species to eliminate those that intrude on our habitat and endanger our children, no matter how remote you might think that risk is.
As I’ve said several times, the “kill immediately” rule should apply to any lion that demonstrates predatory behavior or which enters urban neighborhoods, or predates on housepets or livestock.
That makes it easy to distinguish between the lions that can and should be killed, as a precaution (those that show no fear of humans or their habitat) and the ones that should be left alone (the ones you never see in the wild because they fear humans.)
Pretty simple really, and there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take the slightest chance with anyone’s child, or their pet, when it comes to mountain lion encroachments on human habitat.
Zero tolerance is the only way to go.
My god! A wild animal in….. THE WILDERNESS! Call the national guard! My hypochondria is attacking!
The only problem with your snide response is that it’s not “the wilderness,” it’s a densely populated human community. If it were “the wilderness” there would be no issue at all.
Yours is the typical ignorant bunny-hugger response of someone who’s never even seen a mountain lion, much less faced one down in one’s own back yard.
Why, your manly bravery against a frightened and diminishing species, with your “manly” use of firearms leaves me speechless. The amazing courage it takes to pull the trigger on an unarmed animal searching for food for its cubs is the stuff of legends. Why, perhaps you should change your name to Hercules? Or even better… I’ve got it… You should be elected president – just like in the movies! (sarcastic laughter)
“Unarmed animal?” Mountain lions? Really? This just proves that you know nothing at all about mountain lions.
You do realize how rare mountain lion attacks are, right? Needlessly scaring the citizens of Manitou is overkill. Mountain lions are routinely spotted on the west side every year, and yet not one human attack or injury or death has occured. In fact the last human death by mountain lion in Colorado was in 1997 … 15 years ago. Are there risks? Of course. Can bad things happen? Yep. Should problem animals be dealt with? Yep. Just because a large animal is spotted in or near a populated area, does that automatically mean it’s a problem? Nope. If you can’t handle living in the wildland urban interface, maybe Chicago or New York is a better fit for you.
How rare mountain lion attacks are is a matter of substantial debate because you appear to be counting only mountain lion-caused fatalities as “attacks.” The fact is that mountain lion attacks and predatory behavior towards humans are increasingly common US.
You can think of any instance where a mountain lion shows a lack of fear of, stalking or predatory behavior towards humans as an attack, even if that attack is aborted or not completed because the animal is viewing humans as prey. Eventually, under the right circumstances, this may result in injury or death to a human.
That cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, and any animal that shows such behavior, from a domestic pet to a bear or mountain lion, need, and may by law be killed by the person who is so threatened.
As I said in the article, if the lion fails to flee human presence, or demonstrates any predatory behavior at all, it must be killed.
Moreover, if it’s coming into densely populated areas near schoolyards, there is simply too much danger to the children to permit the animal to live. Period.
So long as lions remain in areas remote from large human populations, they should be protected and managed, but when they become habituated and begin intruding on HUMAN habitat (it’s not “lion habitat” if humans have taken it over), they need to be removed because they are a danger to humans.
“You can think of any instance where a mountain lion shows a lack of fear of, stalking or predatory behavior towards humans as an attack…”
Problem is all of those things are subjective, Seth. It’s like the guy who throws a punch at a bar “because he looked at me wrong”. Or Zimmerman pulling his gun. I get the “abundance of precaution” view. But I think you’re overreacting here.
No, they are not subjective, they are very objective. If you encounter a mountain lion and you can manage to shoot it with a handgun, you have every right to do so because it means, axiomatically, that it was not fleeing from you faster than you can get on target and shoot.
If the lion is not fleeing from you, it’s thinking about eating you and you are in grave danger, particularly if it’s looking directly at you or is exhibiting stalking behavior like moving along with you at a distance, which means it’s looking for an opportunity to attack.
You are trying to equate the right to use deadly force against a human, which has severe restrictions and requires substantial justifications in the law with the right to kill a dangerous predatory animal. There is no comparison. You do NOT need a “reasonable belief” that you are about to be attacked by a mountain lion, all you need is to be close enough to the lion that it COULD attack you under circumstances where the lion is not showing aversive behavior by fleeing from you. That’s sufficient to justify shooting the animal, just as shooting an at-large pit-bull that’s snarling, barking and threatening you or your on-leash pet is completely justifiable.
All that is required is that you be in fear of attack. And if you’re within 50 yards of a lion that sees you and isn’t running from you, you are a fool if you’re not in fear of attack.
And minimizing the threat to schoolchildren who are engaged in outside play of EXACTLY the kind of activity that can trigger a lion’s predatory instincts merely by running around in the schoolyard is beyond ignorant and borders on criminally negligent.
You, like most other people, simply do not understand how dangerous habituated mountain lions are, and the DOW is being outrageously negligent in refusing to accurately portray the risks and in failing to fulfill their primary obligation to protect human life by responding vigorously and conclusively to eliminate the threat of habituated mountain lions in the wildland/urban interface.
Mountain lions belong in the back country, not the front range. It’s just that simple.
I know exactly how dangerous they COULD be. I’m well aware of stalking behavior. But you speak as one who’s nursing a phobia. Abundance of precaution – YES. But the statistics on attacks and kills do not, in my mind, justify your overarching fear. For the record, my wife teaches in a west side school, and every year at least several days a year, they are alerted to mountain lion spottings in the neighborhood. Occassionally someone will discover a deer kill. And they take precautions as necessary. In her 13 years of teaching there, not one attack on a child or adult has occurred. I’d say given their proximity to one the highest densities of mountain lions along the Front Range, that’s a pretty good track record .. thanks to the assistance of the DOW.