Whiting Ranch remains closed by mountain lion activity

On Wednesday, Ranger Candi Hubert headed out into Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park to check trails, brush and wildlife cameras for evidence mountain lions were still hanging around.

It’s a task the supervising ranger has done daily since the wilderness park near the community of Foothill Ranch was shut down on Feb. 7 after a mountain lion approached a young child walking with his parents in a park area known as Four Corners.

A park maintenance worker, who saw the big cat “sling down” before walking toward the 6-year-old, scared the animal off and back into nearby brush by driving his truck toward it and loudly honking.

The lion’s actions were determined to be “bold,” said John Gannaway, who oversees OC Parks’ wilderness areas, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife was notified and the park gates shut. UC Davis’ Wildlife Health Center is also lending its expertise.

It’s been nearly four weeks and Whiting Ranch remains closed – the longest the park has been off limits following a mountain lion incident that wasn’t a fatal attack.

When in January 2020 a mountain lion was killed after it injured a 3-year-old Lake Forest boy and hid in a tree, the park was reopened two days later.  In 2004, when a mountain lion attacked and killed a mountain biker, Whiting Ranch was closed for five to six weeks while officials waited for the results of a necropsy to verify the cat that was put down was the cat involved in the incident.

The history of mountain lion attacks in California is overall pretty low, with 16 attacks recorded in 100 years – three of them were fatal, including the bike rider in Whiting Ranch.

There are an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions in California.

“It’s a judgment call,” Gannaway said of how much longer the park might be kept closed to the public, which has seen a 70% jump in popularity in recent months during the pandemic. “We want a little bit of time to better evaluate what’s going on, especially now that we have UC Davis collaborating with us.

“We’re not interested in keeping the park closed long-term,” he said. “We need time to evaluate the photo images and get back to the Department of Fish and Wildlife and UC Davis and talk more. If we do open, what strategies should we have in place?”

The UC Davis group is headed up by Dr. Winston Vickers, who has studied mountain lions in California for decades. At his urging, park rangers have put out more wildlife cameras, which have shown near-daily sightings, officials said.

The increased cat activity could be a result of the recent Bond and Silverado fires that burned through some of the mountain lions’ nearby terrain. Their range extends into the Santa Ana Mountains.

At least two male cats, one juvenile and an adult, have been seen on camera. Territory for a male lion to roam is about 125 to 150 square miles, a female needs about 75 square miles, Vickers said.

“Whiting might be an area where territories overlap,” Vickers said. “You’d rarely have more than two lions who would use the park.”

As part of the ongoing investigation, rangers are mapping where they are finding tracks and watching the cats’ behavior. They not only look along trails, but also in dense brush and through vegetation. There is some evidence a deer was recently killed, which might have kept the cats around a bit longer.

“Unless they’re there to feed on a kill, they’ll roam,” said Vickers. “It’s never been my experience that they stay around for a long time – even on a deer kill. They’d be there for about a week and then move on.”

Vickers said most of the camera photos show the lions active at night, which he calls encouraging and evidence of appropriate behavior.

He also said the length of the closure should have given the cats time to move on, but it might also be making it more attractive for them to stick around with the park devoid of people.

“It’s a catch 22,” he said.

When the park does open, Gannaway said it will include a more robust effort in getting the public educated on appropriate behavior in the wilderness area. That might include rangers stopping to talk with people more and outreach to underline the fact that those visiting the park are entering a known lion habitat.

“The key thing is for people to remember that it is a wilderness park and take it as such,” Vickers said. “People need to hike and bike with that awareness and know ahead of time what to do.”

With more homes being built, the mountain lions’ territory is diminishing all across Southern California. Since Christmas, the Santa Ana Mountain population has been reduced by six cats.  Three adults were killed, two by car and one by fire.

A female mountain lion struck on Antonio Parkway left two orphaned female kittens; one was also struck by a car, but not killed. She and her sister were taken to Dr. Scott Weldy, a wildlife veterinarian in Lake Forest. He is treating the injured kitten, and placed the other orphan into a rehabilitation center from where it will be released back to the wild.

Weldy also treated another injured kitten that was struck on the 241 toll road on Christmas Day. The animal was so young it can’t be released into the wild, he said.

“The population is so fragile and in a sense, the decline is alarming,” Weldy said. “It does emphasize how these guys are at risk.”

He applauds the closure at Whiting Ranch so there is less chance of interaction with a human that could get one of the big cats in trouble.

He would also support a longer-term closure, he said. “It’s not a bad idea to keep it closed and give the cats a place to live.”

“People can go everywhere,” he said. “They can take bikes, cars and planes. Right now, it’s the only place cats have.”

from Irvine Business Signs https://ift.tt/2MOShHF
via Irvine Sign Company