EDITOR: Our neighborhood has a new resident, a mountain lion.
It
’s been here for over six months and seems to be planning on
staying. We need a public agency to help us relocate our new
neighbor. By now most people around Morgan Hill know about the
mountain lion sightings on both sides of the valley. The powerful,
conquering and independent character of a moun
tain lion may make for a good school mascot, but it doesn’t make
a good suburban neighbor.
EDITOR:
Our neighborhood has a new resident, a mountain lion. It’s been here for over six months and seems to be planning on staying. We need a public agency to help us relocate our new neighbor.
By now most people around Morgan Hill know about the mountain lion sightings on both sides of the valley. The powerful, conquering and independent character of a mountain lion may make for a good school mascot, but it doesn’t make a good suburban neighbor.
We’ve lived in Jackson Oaks for 28 years, and this is the first year we have been obliged to share our yard with a mountain lion. This is not because we invaded his space, as some may think, but is the result of an increasingly large mountain lion population. Since the mountain lion has no natural enemies, its proliferation is limited only by its food supply; the result is hungry mountain lions moving into suburban neighborhoods.
We first realized the presence of a mountain lion when our neighbor found a partly eaten deer between our yards. It wasn’t until the next morning, when we went to remove the carcass that we realized that it had been taken down by a mountain lion. By then, it had been dragged under a bush, more was eaten, and we found mountain lion droppings nearby. A visit by a Morgan Hill animal control officer confirmed our suspicion. This all took place last March.
In April we found the remains of a fawn along our driveway. When we called animal control, we learned that other neighbors had reported seeing the lion with a cub. Between the city’s animal control officer, the state fish and game warden, and a vector control specialist, the continued presence of mountain lions has been well documented. The den was found under a redwood tree 100 feet from our front door.
Plaster casts were taken of paw prints near a neighbor’s home, and their presence is continually confirmed by droppings around our house. There are children in our neighbored, and we have grandchildren that like to visit, so we decided to make our yard as mountain lion unfriendly as possible.
We trimmed the lower limbs off our redwood trees, raked out the needles from under them, and trimmed up bushes that could provide hiding places. During this times neighbors shared ideas for self-protection. Air horns, pepper spray (don’t want to get that close) and bright flashlights were popular suggestions.
By July the neighborhood was beginning to relax a bit, hoping the lions had moved on, when, suddenly, while looking for her lost pet, a neighbor came face-to-face with the lion. This was just last week. We have a serious problem. We are convinced the cat is here to stay.
We’ve heard news and have read an article (Reader’s Digest, November, 2003) about mountain lions taking down people. We’ve done all we can to make our yard inhospitable, but the lions are still here. We suspect they will become increasingly comfortable living so close to humans, and as the deer supply dwindles, as it is doing, other food sources will be sought. It’s only time, as happened in Boulder, Colo., before pets and people will be attacked.
We no longer feel comfortable wandering around our own yard, and children, who are closer to the size of prey, are not safe. We only see the problem compounding as the cub grows to adulthood and possibly another one comes along next year. We would like to have the lion and cub trapped and removed. We hope the city of Morgan hill will help us remove our unwanted neighbor.
Evert and Lynda Cooper,
Morgan Hill
