Odd Old News: Mountain Lions Come Too Close

mountain lion

[Image from ltshears, edited by User:julielangford via Wiki Commons]

This week Odd Old News takes a look at mountain lions and a few uncomfortably close and newsworthy encounters with humans. Today a mountain lion sighting is regarded as more thrilling than dangerous by many of us living in the country, and game cam recordings like Kim Cabrera’s are great entertainment. Historically however, mountain lions have been much maligned for their predation upon the livestock of early Euro-Americans ranchers, and homesteaders in more modern times.

Killing these four legged predators was both a means of protecting one’s livestock and supplementing income for those living in the country, with bounties awarded by the state since the 1870’s. In the 1876 the bounty was $10 per mountain lion scalp. It was claimed that a lion could kill five to twenty sheep in a night. The bounty on mountain lions continued on into the 20th century, county and state trappers kept busy. In a 1924 report on the status of the state’s the deer population, the decimation of the state’s mountain lion population was also noted:

California has a population of 300,000 to 400,000 deer, according to estimates of the California Fish and Game Commission and the United States Forest Service. In the national forests alone, chiefly in northern and central California, the deer are estimated to number 185,000. In the state there are 40,000,000 acres classified as ‘deer country.’ The deer are increasing despite the fact that hunters each year kill 20,000 bucks. Mountain lions kill at least 30,000. Mountain lions, however, are comparatively rare in the state, estimates placing their number at about 300. Since 1907, when a bounty was put on lions and a state hunter employed, 4,108 of the big cats have been killed, an average of 257 yearly”(Blue Lake Advocate, 4/5/1924).

Anyone who has sighted the full grown male of the species knows what an impressive animal he is, and fully deserving of the name lion. Newspaper accounts of slain males with “tip to tail” lengths of nine feet and over were not uncommon. Usually mountain lions weigh between 75-175 pounds, the largest recorded weighed 276 pounds. Though much smaller, one female weighed in at 160 pounds, a size is that is rarely seen(BLA, 8/6/1932).

Here are a few accounts of some close encounters that people have had with mountain lions over the years, starting with an incident near Bull Creek with Dave Chadbourne, a family with deep roots in Southern Humboldt.

At Panther Gap, near Bull Creek Monday night while waiting in a car for his brother Ed to return and go on with him to Tom Hill’s camp, David Chadbourne, who was resting in the back seat, heard a soft-footed animal padding around the car. Presently the animal stepped on the running board, and pushing its head over the door, sniffed around Chadbourne’s head and ears. At first he thought it was some friendly dog, but as he jumped up to make sure, the animal bounded off into the forest shade, and from the sound it made, he was assured it was a panther, who had been taking liberties with him. Chadbourne turned on the lights of the car, and watched for its return, but it did not come back, and when his brother returned they went on to Bark Camp, where they work.(BLA, 8/1/1925).

Returning home after taking their son to Scotia for medical treatment following a sawmill accident, bloody blankets on their wagon attracted an unwanted would-be passenger.

Guy Blivens, the young man who lost three fingers last week by letting his hand come in contact with a planer at Bliven’s South Fork saw mill was taken to Scotia and his hand dressed. He was placed in the bed of a wagon on blankets, and during the trip the wound bled profusely, the blankets being saturated with blood. After leaving young Blivens in Scotia, Mr. Blivens and his wife started on their return trip home and everything went well until a point about mid-way between Pepperwood and Englewood was reached. Here a large panther being attracted by the scent of the blood on the blankets, put in an appearance and attempted to board the wagon, but Mr. Blivens turned the team over this wife and by letting the horses run and applying his whip in stinging blows upon the panther whenever he attempted to board the wagon, succeeded in beating him off, but not before it had inflicted a number of ugly scratches on one of the horses. While the team was running the bed clothes were jolted out of the wagon and it was probably due to this that he was driven away at all—Advance.(Ferndale Enterprise, 10/3/1902).

Celebrated Humboldt County historian Suzy Baker Fountain wrote a history of two prominent Irishmen of Liscom Hill, Patrick Riley and Lawrence Ford , that shared one time when their friendship was challenged by Riley’s singing on a horseback ride home in the dark of night. Was it the song– or the singing?

One night he and Mr. Ford were riding home from Scottsville. Pat had partaken rather freely of the fruit of the vine, and was singing at the top of his voice. He attracted the attention of some mountain lions, who were in the neighborhood and they gave their peculiar cry. Mr. Ford implored him to keep silent, but Pat began to imitate the wild animals call, and the answering calls approached nearer, Ford warned Pat, ‘You fool, if you keep on yelling like that, I’ll ride ahead and leave you.’ Pat was not daunted in the least and continued to make the welkin ring with his weird cry copied from the mountain lion. So Ford spurred on his mount, to carry out his threat. The sudden spurt of the animal so startled Pat, that he fell off his own horse and the fall jolted some sense into him. Mr. Ford was sorely tempted to leave him to the the catamounts.(Blue Lake Advocate, 6/2/1955).

Though attacks on humans are rare, common sense precautions to lessen the risk by making noise, making one’s presence large, and never running from a mountain lion, are worth repeating. Perhaps singing mountain lion arias should be added to the list.

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Ernie Branscomb
Guest
3 years ago

Back in my youth we never had good radio reception. The only radio signal that we could get was very a poor A.M signal, and it only came in at night. It was quite common for high school kids to pile into a car and head up onto the ridgetops to listen to the new Wolfman Jack Rock and Roll Radio Show.

One night my high school buddy and I, and our two girlfriends, headed up to the ridgetop between Garberville and Briceland. We were parked in an open field on the warm summer night. The full moon was out and Wolfman Jack was rocking out. Things were just as about as good as it gets. Then not far away was a very blood-curdling scream that sounded exactly like a terrified woman screaming. The scream ended with a coughing/choking sound.

Things changed immediately. I explained that it was just a mountain lion… that didn’t seem to comfort the girls at all. Yep, we had to go home.

The ridgetop between Garberville and Briceland was a well known historical Mountain Lion path. It probably still is.

(Mountain Lion sounds)= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i1WViTBTmA

DivideByZero
Guest
DivideByZero
3 years ago

“XERB baby, and this is de Wolfman coming straight at ya from Rosarita Beach, Mexico. You send me a crisp fin baby, check, cash, or money order, and I’ll send you a life-size poster of de Wolfman”.

When the Wolfman died, Radio died.

Dan F
Guest
Dan F
3 years ago
Reply to  DivideByZero

I used to listen to him as a teen, in Blue Lake, even after the radio station changed its call sign to XPRS!!! Yes it would only come in at night because a local station had the frequency during the day!!! The “Mighty 1090”!!!

researcher
Guest
researcher
3 years ago
Reply to  DivideByZero

When I was a kid I used to put a little transistor radio under my pillow and go to sleep listening to Wolfman Jack. He was my hero and I can still hear his gravelly voice as if it was yesterday.

Guest
Guest
Guest
3 years ago

Nothing like have a male mountain lion checking out your potential as a meal to put you in your place in the natural world.

catbus1974
Guest
catbus1974
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Usually they’re just trying figure out if you’ll beat them off when they try to board the wagon.

Mike
Guest
Mike
3 years ago
Reply to  Guest

As I’ve said before, there’s only one proper defense against a mountain lion. You stare it straight in the eye, pick up a stick and hit in on the head and yell Bad Kitty! Works every time.

Redwood Dan
Guest
Redwood Dan
3 years ago

I looked 1 in the face from 40 feet last fall, a few miles east of Garberville. My neighbor shot a deer with a bow, and it ran onto my property. We tracked the blood near some really dense brush in a creek bed. We spotted some fur and thought it was the deer. As we started to climb through the brush, it suddenly moved and looked right at us. All 3 of us froze fro probably 10 seconds. I quickly drank the last of my coffee and changed the grip on my cup to hold like a bludgeon, as it was the only hard object in reach. Luckily the cat ran away. We found the deer buried under sticks and grass. I havent seen it since, but a different neighbor claims that it frequently shits near a rock outcropping on his property. I’m sure its around, once and a while the deer run out of the woods really scared.

Big Bang
Guest
3 years ago

Used to be a GIANT white faced tom lion where the Eel dumps into Pillsbury. He was very fond of Mergansers. When a lion preys on waterfowl, they kinda’ lose their taste for deer as a duck can’t kick the shit out of ’em. If he heard you splashing in the water, he’d come a runnin’! Had more than one encounter with that old tom, and he would go 200 lbs. easy…

To balnce the sensation . . .
Guest
To balnce the sensation . . .
3 years ago

A total of 125 attacks, 27 of which were fatal have been documented in North America in the past 100 years.
Fatal cougar attacks are extremely rare and occur much less frequently than fatal snake bites, fatal lightning strikes, or fatal bee stings.

The old, young, and small should not jog or bike alone at dawn or dusk out of a abundance of caution. The majority of attacks have been on improperly supervised children.

FanOfGuest
Guest
FanOfGuest
3 years ago

I’m a big fan of cougar hunting…

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago

I have had the privilege to have had a face to face with one male mountain lion who was in a tree at the same level as the viewing deck I was on with a group of others… no more than ten feet away. The stare was of an intensity that I have seen only one other time in my life… and that was from a one eyed Afghani mujahdeen warrior. The lion ‘walked’ down the tree with perfect grace. Amazing to watch from that close!
Another male was no more than 15 feet away from me one morning when I went outside to take a leak, my older cat and I were oblivious, but my younger cat was on alert, and after I went inside he skedaddled to his cat door and ran upstairs. A cue that I knew to investigate from my cats’ previous dashes from predators. Going to the deck I saw a large dark shape at the edge of my curtilage that I thought was a deer that had invaded, but a closer look with glasses on saw a huge male looking back at me before he leapt the fence. The third encounter was with a female strolling down the drive 25 feet away with it’s tail straight up and swishing like a housecat, but 25 feet away doesn’t count as a close encounter… 🙂 Can honestly say that shooting a mountain lion has never occurred to me.

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
3 years ago
Reply to  David Heller

I have had the pleasure of quite a few Pako, Cougar, Cat-a-mount, puma, he who smiles from the bushes, mountain lion ( I have more) encounters. One was out on a run in the afternoon when a Tom “popped” out on the trail 40 feet in front of me with the look of a cat who had been disturbed from his nap. He lopped down the trail while my 2 dogs were unsure what to do. I had a 140# wolf dog and the cat was longer but with the same shoulder height… after 100 feet on the trail the cat shot off into the woods. I let my dogs know they shouldn’t follow and they didn’t argue…

Semi Sleuth
Guest
Semi Sleuth
3 years ago

Yeah,
Mountain lions.
My turf is one of the places they like to do get friendly.
Chased the noisy things off one night.
Kinda the opposite of what happened to Ernie.
Next morning went and found their tracks.
This is what they looked like. : : :
No joke.

Rick Lanman
Guest
Rick Lanman
3 years ago

Note they aren’t lions as they cannot roar, and they aren’t mountain lions as they live in the plains just as well as the mountains. They are in the genus Puma, and are called puma in 21 of the 23 countries that they live. Only Canada and the USA call them mountain lions or cougars or panthers. The true American lion is in the genus Panthera (Panthera leo is the African lion, Panthera tigris is the Asian tiger),Panthera onca is the jaguar and they can roar and are twice the size of puma. Definite records of jaguar in California as north as Monterey
(by the French naturalist Jean François Galaup de La Pérouse), and also in the Sierra Nevada (Grizzly Adams account). Many more records in Baja California and in the Colorado River delta, of course now extirpated in the USA with occasional migrants into the Cloud Islands of southern Arizona and New Mexico.

David Heller
Guest
David Heller
3 years ago
Reply to  Rick Lanman

Thank you Rick, please feel free to add some rigor to these history-lite posts anytime! That real name panther was sometimes colloquialized to ‘painter’ in the back country.