Aggressive Mountain Lions
Prompt Evacuation Of Park

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Since California severely limited mountain lion control efforts in the 1980s, lion numbers have mushroomed and so have attacks on livestock, pets and people. The latest incident occurred over the holidays, only days after the reopening of a park that had been restricted to adults for more than a decade because of unruly cougars.

Officials killed a mountain lion that charged a group of women and children at the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, less than two weeks after the park was reopened to minors.

No one was injured when the female mountain lion circled within three feet of the group Sunday before last, hissing and baring its teeth. The lion retreated after one of the women tossed a child's hiking boot at it.

The lion was shot dead by a warden the same day, after some 75 park visitors had been evacuated, State Department of Fish and Game Supervisor Mike McBride said Wednesday.

The incident was one of several involving aggressive lions at Caspers and nearby Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park since Dec. 20. Whiting was closed for several days last week because of odd behavior among mountain lions, including separate stalkings of a jogger and two men riding horseback. It reopened Wednesday afternoon because the mountain lion appeared to have left the area.

Ranger John Gannaway said there has been no such incident at Caspers Park since a cougar mauled two small children there in 1986, resulting in severe injuries to one child, a lawsuit and a $1.5 million damage award against Orange County. The 7600-acre park was later closed to minors and only reopened Dec. 16.

"It's pretty scary," Gannaway said. "I think it's very ironic with the timing. It's been 11 years since anything remotely close to this has happened."

County Supervisor Charles Smith, who strongly argued against reopening the park two weeks ago, said he will try to close the park again at the Board of Supervisors' Jan. 13 meeting.

"We have to decide if this is going to be a park for children to play in or a park for mountain lions — the two are not compatible," Smith said. "Public safety should be the number one role of the county."

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who voted to reopen the park, said the incident hasn't changed his mind.

"It is just a coincidence," Wilson said. "There aren't any more sightings in Caspers than there are in other wilderness areas. You can't close a wilderness area to animals or to people. They can coexist."

The lion's carcass was sent to a state laboratory to be tested for disease or some sign of physiological problems that could account for its behavior. A brief examination of the animal when it was shot showed that it was physically fit, well nourished, had no signs of disease or injury and was not producing milk. Protection of cubs has often been cited as an excuse for aggressiveness among female lions.