Posted by LionLover, a resident of another community, on Feb 23, 2009 at 12:30 pm

If you see a mountain lion, please don't freak out about it - just stand still, make yourself appear larger if possible, and wait for it to leave. DON'T tell anyone (least of all the trigger-happy POLICE) where you saw it. This time of year the lions are usually just youngsters exploring, and looking for a territory to call their own. When a young lion pops up in a populated area, it already knows it's made a mistake. If it climbs a tree, hides in the bushes or whatever, it's NOT there for the purposes of eating your pets or your children; it's scared to death, and if left alone, will wait until cover of darkness so that it can get out of there, and back to where it belongs. The mountain lions' natural prey is deer, and if we didn't have them to keep the deer population under control, everyone living in the hills would have to have cow-catchers on the front of their cars in order to drive safely. I once lived in LAH during a boom in the deer population, and they were everywhere. I've been charged by bucks several times, even when mounted on a horse. Statistically, the mountain lion poses far less of a threat to people than deer, coyotes, or even domestic animals. To actually SEE a wild mountain lion is a once-in-a-lifetime, extremely special experience. As predators, they should be respected and avoided, but certainly not exterminated. They're part of the balance of nature, and their known presence, even if never seen, make the wild places we enjoy just that much more wild, and that much more of a treasure.