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More Mountain Lions Die

A mountain lion killed Saturday by a police officer in Oceanside was one
of 14 being studied in a joint Fish & Game, County of Orange study by
biologist Paul Beier.  Another lion being studied was killed Sunday
night by a vehicle on Interstate 15 south of Temecula.

State Fish & Game Department officials and police officers in Oceanside
chased the first lion Saturday morning through backyards and across
rooftops for more than three hours before it was killed.  After being
cornered on a bluff, five officers fired simultaneously, but only
wounded the animal.  After the lion hid under a porch, one officer fired
a shot that hit the animal in the jaw.  The cougar then charged the
officer who fired nine shots from his 9mm pistol which stopped the lion
six feet from the officer.

The 800-square mile study area includes the Santa Ana Mountain Range of
Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties.  Beier estimates that as many
as 40 cougars (including cubs) live in the study area.  Habitat loss and
fragmentation is decreasing the amount of habitat available to the
animals.  As development continues there is a strong possibility that
cougars will be driven extinct in the Santa Ana Mountain Range in about
20 years.

Few details were available on the death of the second cougar.  Beier's
study has shown that automobile accidents are the main cause of death in
the study area.  One lion who was struck by an automobile on the 91
freeway, suffered for six months before he died in September 1991.


Ed Harrison <harrisone>


Why didn't Fish and Game see that the only officers allowed to

shoot at the lion used tranquillizer guns?  I don't see why it was
necessary to kill it.

Its just too sad there is such of lack of interest in preserving
habitat in Southern Ca., and also the lions.  I'm sure Joe Blow
homeowner with his pet dogs and cats (which are busily hunting
native bird species to extinction) would only be happy to have toe
lions eliminated
K. Sullivan