Mountain lion shot near Big Bear school (Via Paul Cropper)

Mountain lion shot near Big Bear school
RICHARD BROOKS
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
7 May 2010
The Press-Enterprise
© 2010 The Press-Enterprise. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Deputies shot a mountain lion Thursday near a school beside Big Bear Lake just days after the same cat killed a dog in the area and another lion treed a Lake Arrowhead jogger, officials say. "If you live in mountain or foothill communities in Southern California, there's a possibility of a mountain lion showing up at any time," warns California Department of Fish & Game biologist Kevin Brennan. "Usually, they'll go after a pet or livestock before they'll go after a person."

A motorist summoned a deputy sheriff early Thursday after spotting a mountain lion crossing North Shore Drive in a residential area and near a school along the east end of Big Bear Lake. The sighting was only about a mile from where a mountain lion killed a pet dog Friday along Panamint Mountain Drive, said Brennan.

Deputies killed the animal at 9:35 a.m.

Authorities said the critter was an obviously underweight female weighing about 70 pounds. "Our on-scene biologist is of the opinion that it's definitely the same lion that killed the dog on Friday," said Brennan, who told of two other sightings since then. "Last night, the county trapper was out there with the hounds, but he was unable to find the lion. It obviously has been frequenting the area since it killed the dog."

About 30 miles to the east, what is believed to be a different mountain lion chased and tried to attack a female jogger Tuesday near the Willow Creek Treatment Plant in the forest along the north shore of Lake Arrowhead.
"There was a standoff. She backed away and sought refuge in a tree," said Brennan, who could only guess why the animal didn't climb the tree after her. "Maybe because she was shaking a stick at it and squirting water at it."
Workers from the water treatment plant heard her screams and drove to help her, scaring away the animal.
A federal hunter and his hounds were assigned to kill the animal, but the dogs couldn't find the scene. And the big cat didn't return to the area, though authorities set out animal carcasses as lures, Brennan said.

As a result, officials have called off the hunt.

"We don't have any indication that there's a mountain lion still in the area," Brennan said. "It can no longer be considered an imminent threat to public safety." Anyone confronted by a mountain lion or bear should resist the urge to run and, instead, try to appear exceptionally large and intimidating by raising their arms over their head or spreading open their jacket or shirt, Brennan said.

"If you are attacked by a wild animal, fight back," he said. "People have successfully repelled mountain lions with whatever they had at hand: baseball caps, cups, jackets." The motorist who spotted the ill-fated lion near Big Bear Lake says such sightings are becoming increasingly common. "They (seldom) come into the populated areas," said Ray Bowling, of 31-year resident of Big Bear City and a north shore business owner. "But in the last couple of years, I've started to see them."

He believes deputies had to open fire on the Big Bear Lake mountain lion because it was in a residential area near an elementary school and had repeatedly returned to the neighborhood after killing the dog. "The deputies were pretty brave to run down in front of this animal and keep it from escaping," Bowling said. "They put themselves in harms way."

Reach Richard Brooks at 951-368-9463 or rbrooks@PE.com