In February, the California Fish and Game Commission officially listed mountain lions in our region as threatened. Most people are understandably confused as sightings and attacks in Morgan Hill and surrounding ranch lands are at record highs.
Activists are basically telling us to turn the entire western coast into a mountain lion habitat. To understand this, we must use simple mathematics.
First of all, the commission’s decision is not based on low numbers leading to impending extinction—it’s based on a hypothetical future disease that might happen. Meanwhile, they are ignoring the current crisis of massive overpopulation that is already here.
A single mountain lion home range is between 100-500 square miles. Using the minimum, 100 square miles equals 64,000 acres. Morgan Hill is 8,000 acres. It would take eight Morgan Hills to give one mountain lion a minimum home range.
Our Santa Cruz mountains are about 1,000 square miles, giving the range a carrying capacity of about 10 mountain lions. The current estimate is 80-plus lions. This shows an 8 times over carrying capacity.
Although authorities all agree with this math, they do not consider it overpopulated because the lions are trapped in these mountains by roads. If they were able to escape these fragmented Islands, they could spread out—the current solution being wildlife bridges to connect these islands.
But this does not solve the problem. If we take the state’s estimated 4,500 lions and give them the minimum 100 square miles, they would need 450,000 square miles to live comfortably and conflict free.
That 450,000 square miles equals 288 million acres. California is about 100 million acres. It would take three Californias to support the current mountain lion population.
By protecting a mountain lion population that, by their own standards is three times more than the state’s capacity, they are guaranteeing mass livestock and pet losses overflowing into backyards and mountain lions killing each other over territory and being pushed out into dangerous roads.
We must stop focusing on the hypothetical future disease and start focusing on the current population crisis that’s here right now.
Phil Salgado
Morgan Hill
