Mountain lions seen near Santa Cruz

where I live the mountian lions sometimes circle the schools waiting for kiddies to come out and play.
There are at least 100 of them in our county but I have never seen one after a few thousand miles of remote trail running.
used to carry pepper spray and a sharpened ski pole but I've gotten lazy recently (hope lions don't read).

They are here…..
We have one that has made our driveway part of his regular rounds. In the last 2 months we lost our 2 cats, one neighbor has lost 3 goats and another a couple of calfs.
I am not scared, but it is on my mind , particularly when I am out in the dark.

Oh yeah, the article…..that is exactly where I work, upper UCSC; that meadow is part of my area, and I have seen 3 of them in the last 12 months.

I used to go caving in some of those tight little limestone caves up above campus. Guess I should've started off with a, "Here, kitty, kitty. . . "

No grizzlies in California for 150 years but the mountain lions are coming back. . . hmmm, maybe time to change the state flag?

What do you want to bet that they use a Fancy Feast stove?

–B.G.–

Several months ago one was spotted in the Gourmet Ghetto; talk about fancy feast!Sadly they shot it but the situation was not good. I was hoping Alice Waters might serve it up since it was fresh and local but this being Berkeley and all*….more recent sightings around Lawrence Livermore Labs and now in Kensington too, where I live. The deer population is huge this year in my neighborhood.

*and remember that I had nothing to do with this!

Yeah, the whole Bay Area is big cat habitat. I know several Rangers and park volunteers that have see them, and have talked to a few park visitors that have as well. I have yet to come across one myself though. I think it may be one of the last CA native animals that I haven't seen in the wild. I always have my camera handy though, just in case.

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/
'Western cougar populations have been increasing since the 1960s, largely due to increased legal protection for the cats and to the growth and expansion of prey populations. Dr. Maurice Hornocker, a prominent cougar expert, was recently quoted as saying "There may now be more mountain lions in the West than there were before European settlement." The evidence that the Cougar Network has collected to date suggests that the species is beginning to re-colonize several of the adjacent prairie states, and possibly even some of the Midwestern and Southeastern states as well.' We've had two confirmed sighting in my area and several in MO and AR.

The confirmation page on the Big Picture Map would support this last statement. Does give the solo hiker pause, lol. Although as somewhere I read,or was told, if you see one, they're likely not interested in you for dinner. If they are, you'll probably never know it til it's too late. There are worse ways to meet your demise :)