TOliver proclaimed:

"Bob Ward" wrote in message
...

On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:46:56 GMT, "Calif Bill"
wrote:


The Calif. F&G is full of **** also. Look at the bad science and the
MLPA's. Bought and paid for by Environazis! Walnut Creek has been a
large
population center for years, backing up to Mt. Diablo. Why are these
lions
no danger to the populace? They do not like Burb people? Pleasanton
Ridge
has several lions. Lots of hikers and bikers. and is between Pleasanton
with 80,000 people and Hayward with even more.


Show us the facts. EXACTLY how many people can you demonstrate have
been attacked in the area you are blathering about?



The fact that both of you are acting as flaming assholes hardly negates the
need for rational discussion lions.

It is tough. They are big huge, really beautiful animals. They are
also big huge catlike creatures and as likely to injure humans with play
behavior as attack behavior. Got a scar on the back of my left hand
from a playing roughhouse with a 2 year old female when a teenager.

First, as with a dozen other noticeable species, the puma/cougar/lion has
altered its behavior in recent years, over time adjusting itself lifestyle
and range to the presence of humans - not to the extent that coyotes have -
but in essence beginning to reclaim range it had once abandoned. Food
sources obviously play a part in the "re-spread" of lion habitat and the
growth in the number of lions about. Hunting likely never diminished the
number of lions as much as did loss of habitat, and "learning"/adapting to
new "dietary supplements" helps keep cubs alive and able to grow into
adulthood and reproduce (although finding a mate remain desperately
difficult for many lions, isolated by their solitary habits).

Generally speaking, lions are unlikely to seek close contact with people,
and given their coloration and stealth, folks could walk within a few feet
of a lion, never aware of its presence.

It is a genuine moment when you are wandering places like the Utah
canyons and move up a shelf and discover very fresh cougar tracks where
one has obviously been just a few feet above your head watching you.

There are some ringers which may cause that equation to imbalance.

A female with cubs nearby may react in a fashion quite different from
"normal".

They are also naturally playful like many predators. I wouldn't go so
far as to claim they are just overgrown cats, but I have first hand
knowledge of watching a friend's [the local game warden] kitten grow up
and playing with it... with a few scars as evidence. Plus they were all
over the place on the mountain behind our house and we coud watch them
play around with other animals they obviously had no real interest in
eating. Unfortunately, they tend to be pretty intelligent but somehow
fail to grasp that humans are not as rugged as their fellow lions are
when horse playing. And they will take a run at pretty much anything
going by. Some claim is triggering of hunting behavior....having seen
them "attack" a moving hay fork, I'd be more likely to believe is play
behavior that tends to have fairly severe consequences for the ball of
string.

Any lion which as spent much of its life in proximity to frequent human
activity may, just as even gentle pets do, lash out defensively at a human
who appears as threatening. Why a lion perceives a specific individual or
instance as threatening, we don't know. Ask the lions. I've not know any
"Lion Whisperers" of repute in that area.

As noted, even a lion that grew up around humans and was adopted by a
Great Dane tends to be somewhat disastrously playful even when well
fed... a luxury available only to lions that DO live near overly
available food sources--those left carelessly around by humans.

Some "experts" have with reason claimed that lions see joggers and bike
riders as something other than humans, the rapid movement or the vehicle
altering the appearance, causing the lion to view the rider or runner as
potential prey.

.. or large balls of string.

Others view these sort of attacks in simpler perspective, that runners and
riders confront less than wary lions more quickly than us simple plodders
wandering about, obviously human by our smell and not fast enough to be
athreat. By Golly, I might bite a bike rider who arrived unannounced on my
porch as I was napping during the day in the warm sun, a lionish thing to
do.

I'd agree with this, if something big moves slowly in their direction
they will tend to just as slowly move away, trying not to break
cover--if they are not hunting the big item in question. But if it is
moving too fast, it can trigger hunting/playing [not convinced there is
a difference] behavior as well as possibly startle them--which is NOT a
survival move.


The inevitable result....More people in more places added to some resurgence
in lion population along with reclamation of former range simply means there
will be more attacks, and with a video cam, station vehicle and helo waiting
breathlessly for every human or animal tragedy, the events will be covered.

And are they ever. Typically with prattling about how much easier prey
humans are than deer and how wounded or sick animals are far more likely
to go after humans rather than risk getting their butts kicked by deer.

TM "Don't bike with pumas, and don't send your three year old out to play
with the coyotes either." Oliver

Don't wrestle with them either.