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I live in CA near Santa Cruz and we have had mountain lions in our backyard. I've seen them close up and was not scared for the reasons you mentioned, it wante

I live in CA near Santa Cruz and we have had mountain lions in our backyard. I've seen them close up and was not scared for the reasons you mentioned, it wanted to be seen. I had a slightly scarier incident where I was hissed at from thick bushes by a mountain lion that I couldn't see, but I left and the lion did not follow. It's extremely common in our area for lions to attack and kill small dogs and livestock. For that reason, there aren't many people that appreciate preserving these animals even though there have been no recorded attacks on humans in our area. Bears used to be common in the area too, but were hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago and the ecosystem adapted and survived. If lions weren't here there are lots of people who would definitely hunt to keep the population down. I think people overestimate the danger of lions to people, but also overestimate the environmental impact if they left. But overall I know many people who have seen lions up close or been followed while hiking and everyone ended up being safe.

paulcole 7y ago
Yeah, I've seen one while trail running in Oregon. While scary (came around a blind turn before sunrise and it was about 20' away), it clearly wanted nothing to do with me. Just stopped, looked at me, and wandered off the trail. One of the most memorable wildlife encounters I've had in my life.
komali2 7y ago
>Bears used to be common in the area too, but were hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago and the ecosystem adapted and survived. I think we have different definitions of survived... The bears certain didn't, and that to me is an extraordinarily terrible environmental impact.
- everdev 7y ago
  By survived, I mean the ecosystem as a whole rebalanced and survived. I think there's this notion of taking any predator or apex animal out of an ecosystem can cause it to collapse. But early humans hunted many animals to extinctions, at least regionally, and those ecosystems may have changed, but I don't know of any that became inhospitable or void of life as a result. I'm sure there was some environmental impact of hunting bears to extinction in Central CA, I'm just not aware of it and haven't heard of anyone proposing that we reintroduce them.

paulcole 7y ago

Yeah, I've seen one while trail running in Oregon. While scary (came around a blind turn before sunrise and it was about 20' away), it clearly wanted nothing to do with me. Just stopped, looked at me, and wandered off the trail. One of the most memorable wildlife encounters I've had in my life.

komali2 7y ago

>Bears used to be common in the area too, but were hunted to extinction hundreds of years ago and the ecosystem adapted and survived. I think we have different definitions of survived... The bears certain didn't, and that to me is an extraordinarily terrible environmental impact.

everdev 7y ago
By survived, I mean the ecosystem as a whole rebalanced and survived. I think there's this notion of taking any predator or apex animal out of an ecosystem can cause it to collapse. But early humans hunted many animals to extinctions, at least regionally, and those ecosystems may have changed, but I don't know of any that became inhospitable or void of life as a result. I'm sure there was some environmental impact of hunting bears to extinction in Central CA, I'm just not aware of it and haven't heard of anyone proposing that we reintroduce them.