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What's clear is that humans have expanded into habitat that was once the relatively exclusive domain of the cougar. "We're having more encounters because we're moving into their territory," says Lynn Sadler, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, a national pro-cougar lobbying group based in Sacramento, Calif. "We are not only reducing the size of their available range but fragmenting it." She recalls a recent incident in Roseville, Calif., where a lion walked right through a brand-new apartment complex. The site straddled a natural pathway that lions used to travel between neighboring ranges. "There was probably a female in heat in the next canyon over that he'd visited before," says Sadler.
At the same time, the cat's population has increased, in California alone reaching an estimated 5,000, double the number in 1972. The population, once threatened by bounty hunters, is protected on the West Coast by state laws that ban the sport hunting of cougars or forbid the use of dogs to do so. And just as cougars began proliferating again, they were presented with alternative prey, such as pets and domesticated animals brought in by the growing human settlements.
So what can be done to get out of the way of the lions? Unlike bears, lions do not attack simply because their young are threatened. Lions hunt, skulking around their prey unnoticed before pouncing. Females and males are equally predatory. Yosemite wildlife-control officer Kate McCurdy recalls a Yosemite lion who sat near tents in 1994, intently watching shadows cast by people partying inside. Cougars tend to pick solitary prey; thus the lone jogger and the occasional bird watcher are in greater danger. But when lions do decide to target a group, they go after the smaller elements in the pack--children.
Steve Torres, an Arizona naturalist and the author of the book Mountain Lion Alert, has formulated some advice. Do not run from a lion--they recognize prey by flight. Yell and scream instead. Eye contact, too, establishes a threat to the cougar, or you may wave it away. Raise your arms to make yourself seem bigger than you actually are. If in a group, band together and pick up the children. If you are with pets, forget about them. Defend your children. And if the lion attacks, fight back, brandishing a threatening object--knife, branch, stick.
And what can be done to prevent lions from roaming on property? Torres says anything that attracts deer increases the chances of mountain lion incursions. "Landscape your yard with native plants that do not attract deer," Torres advises. And don't leave garbage exposed. It attracts smaller animals, which is what a hungry cougar is looking for.
Of course, not every lion sighting is for real. Sometimes people report golden retrievers, big house cats and other similar-size animals as cougars. But Paul Beier, a biologist at Northern Arizona University, believes the recent confrontations between lions and man aren't just flukes. "The attacks aren't likely to go down," he says. "We're not making more land."