5 ms·

Going to have a mountain lion problem in 2-3 years.

by huffmsa 7y ago

idlewords 7y ago
Mountain lion opportunity.
- floatingatoll 7y ago
  North Bay concurs! https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-sleeping-outside-california-macys-tranquilized/ https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-sleepi...
- huffmsa 7y ago
  A feature, if you will.
dbcurtis 7y ago
Actually 2-3 nights is a better estimate, in practice, as I understand it. OK, so apologies as this is literally a second-hand shaggy-dog story, but here goes: I coordinate the maintenance of a privately maintained road in the Sierra foothills. I was chatting with the equipment operator we use while waiting for the new tire to arrive to repair a flat on his grader. Anyway... his sister-in-law does goatherd contracts for CALTRANS to manage roadside vegetation. His wife's family is Basque heritage, so there is multiple generations of sheep and goat herding expertise there. Usually, she deploys 2 or 3 big sheep dogs along with the goats to deter predation. One time on a contract along I-5 she wasn't able to bring the dogs for the first night, and lost two goats to mountain lions overnight. The cats are out there... they hide well.
- huffmsa 7y ago
  > The cats are out there... they hide well. There's a good reason they're as widespread as humans. They're machines. I was thinking a bit longer term. This effectively free new source of food is going to lead to fatter cats who have more kittens, who in turn survive better because there's more food.
username223 7y ago
They should deploy some guard llamas. They are a real thing, and actually kind of awesome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama EDIT (because I'm apparently "posting too fast"): Yes, dogs traditionally do this in Europe, the States, and other places. I just thought it was interesting that llamas can also do it, since they aren't carnivores. The details of why they do it are also interesting.
- toasterlovin 7y ago
  There are dog breeds (Great Pyrenees and all the other large white European mountain breeds) who have co-evolved with humans specifically for guarding livestock from predators. They’ll probably accompany the goats.
  - maxxxxx 7y ago
    They can also protect penguins https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105
    - toasterlovin 7y ago
      Great story, thanks for sharing. My wife grew up with a Polish Mountain Sheep Dog. When we decided to get a dog for our family, we wanted a similar breed (livestock guarding dogs tend to be low energy, good with small children, and fearlessly protective; perfect for us, in other words). In the Pacific Northwest, Great Pyrenees are much easier to locate than Polish Mountain Sheep dogs, so that’s what we got. Anyway, around that time I did a deep Wikipedia dive on dog breeds. I found it fascinating that basically every mountainous region of Europe has its own breed of large, white livestock guarding dogs.

Going to have a mountain lion problem in 2-3 years.

idlewords 7y ago

Mountain lion opportunity.

floatingatoll 7y ago
North Bay concurs! https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-sleeping-outside-california-macys-tranquilized/ https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-sleepi...
huffmsa 7y ago
A feature, if you will.

dbcurtis 7y ago

Actually 2-3 nights is a better estimate, in practice, as I understand it. OK, so apologies as this is literally a second-hand shaggy-dog story, but here goes: I coordinate the maintenance of a privately maintained road in the Sierra foothills. I was chatting with the equipment operator we use while waiting for the new tire to arrive to repair a flat on his grader. Anyway... his sister-in-law does goatherd contracts for CALTRANS to manage roadside vegetation. His wife's family is Basque heritage, so there is multiple generations of sheep and goat herding expertise there. Usually, she deploys 2 or 3 big sheep dogs along with the goats to deter predation. One time on a contract along I-5 she wasn't able to bring the dogs for the first night, and lost two goats to mountain lions overnight. The cats are out there... they hide well.

huffmsa 7y ago
> The cats are out there... they hide well. There's a good reason they're as widespread as humans. They're machines. I was thinking a bit longer term. This effectively free new source of food is going to lead to fatter cats who have more kittens, who in turn survive better because there's more food.

username223 7y ago

They should deploy some guard llamas. They are a real thing, and actually kind of awesome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama EDIT (because I'm apparently "posting too fast"): Yes, dogs traditionally do this in Europe, the States, and other places. I just thought it was interesting that llamas can also do it, since they aren't carnivores. The details of why they do it are also interesting.

toasterlovin 7y ago
There are dog breeds (Great Pyrenees and all the other large white European mountain breeds) who have co-evolved with humans specifically for guarding livestock from predators. They’ll probably accompany the goats.
- maxxxxx 7y ago
  They can also protect penguins https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35039105
  - toasterlovin 7y ago
    Great story, thanks for sharing. My wife grew up with a Polish Mountain Sheep Dog. When we decided to get a dog for our family, we wanted a similar breed (livestock guarding dogs tend to be low energy, good with small children, and fearlessly protective; perfect for us, in other words). In the Pacific Northwest, Great Pyrenees are much easier to locate than Polish Mountain Sheep dogs, so that’s what we got. Anyway, around that time I did a deep Wikipedia dive on dog breeds. I found it fascinating that basically every mountainous region of Europe has its own breed of large, white livestock guarding dogs.