Joel Metz wrote:
>
> hey, if its any comfort, i lived in that area for years, and used to
> go mountain biking back there almost daily.
>
> ive seen mountain lions while out riding on more than one occasion,
> several times in that same area, and never once have they done
> anything more than hesitate before fleeing. consider that the odds
> are very, very low - see
> http://tchester.org/
> known mountain lion attacks in california through yesterday. we tend
> to blow things out of proportion when nature does one of those things
> that nature does sometimes that results in injury to humans
Actually the odds are increasing according to this from today's L.A.Times:
"Fish and Game officials recorded only nine mountain lion attacks on humans between 1919 and 1995, including two women killed by mountain lions in 1994 at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park east of San Diego and Auburn State Recreation Area northeast of Sacramento. Experts who study the animals, however, say that mountain lions are beginning to see humans as prey.
"God, this is horrible. This is exactly what I've been predicting," said David Baron, author of "The Beast in the Garden," an examination of ominous changes in the big cats.
As homes are built in or next to wilderness areas, "mountain lion behavior is changing in some very worrisome ways," said Baron, now a visiting scholar at Boston University. "As the cats adapt to suburban life, mountain lion attacks, while still very rare, are much more common than they were 10 or 15 years ago."
Chuck "lions and tigers and bears oh my" Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.