Backyard wildlife Captured from a great distance in January of 2020, this cat was finishing up a multi-day feast on a cow elk off of Sugarloaf Road. For more local and regional nature photography, follow along on Facebook’s James DeWalt Photography, Life in Nature page! PHOTO BY JAMES DEWALT[/caption]

It was virtual standing room only on a mild January night in Nederland as dozens of people turned out to learn how to live with mountain lions. The talk was timely as the community has been deeply concerned about recent sightings of large mountain lions in the area, including the confirmed kill of a domestic pet.

The talk was led by Sam Peterson, a Wildlife Officer from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and was hosted by the Wild Bear Nature Center both in person and by teleconference. The talk was also organized by Dave Gustafson, a Nederland resident (where the mountain lion has been spotted in the last 24 hours) and also a Boulder Ranger.

To understand the history of the mountain lion in our region, you have to go back 12,000 years when the area would have been populated by all manner of megafauna, including the massive Panthera leo atrox, the American cave lion, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves, as well as huge prey animals. Rather than the apex position they now hold, the mountain lion lived as a secondary or even tertiary predator, just as likely to be prey as predator.

The fact that they did not evolve as apex predators still affects them today, including their well-known skittishness. Although they evolved looking over their shoulders, when the megafauna went extinct, a small population of mountain lions survived in South America, and then repopulated north to 11 western states, eventually including Colorado.

Fast forward to today, the migration of humans to the mountains means that mountain lions share their habitat with 14 million people. The way mountain lions see it - we humans are encroaching on their territory. In fact, one male mountain lion that was tracked revealed a prey territory that crossed over 17,000 private land parcels. You can imagine how many people share their property with mountain lions without ever knowing it. Females have territories of around 50 square miles, while males are closer to 250 square miles.

During the one-hour educational talk, we learned how to identify the paw prints of a mountain lion and the unique trail a lion makes in the snow (due to tail dragging). And we learned that the tail is the “tell-tale” sign of a mountain lion - it can be as long as the body of the entire mountain lion! We learned to identify the body signals of a mountain lion and what to do if you encounter a mountain lion in the wild - that is, stay calm, back away slowly, make yourself look larger, yell at the lion, but don’t turn and run!

We learned a super memory technique for kids of all ages called S.M.A.R.T.: if you encounter a mountain lion, S (stop) M (make yourself big) A (announce your presence) R (retreat slowly) and T (tell an adult). We also learned something that is controversial. You legally can kill a mountain lion in self-defense that is attacking a human or your livestock, but remarkably not your pet - even if it is a service animal.

So how do we live with mountain lions? Don’t attract them into our communities by feeding other animals like deer that they prey upon. Bring your domestic animals in at night unless there is a secured outside space with walls and a roof. We learned about the four main components that attract mountain lions to downtown Nederland: food, water, shelter and space that all combine to create habitat.

Statistically, mountain lions are an insignificant threat to people, but a lack of knowledge leads to conflict, which then leads to dead mountain lions. Between 1890 and 2003, only 16 people were killed by mountain lions. Considering 14 million people live with mountain lions in America, clearly the lions are not looking for conflict with people.

However, local lions face a variety of threats, and normal kitten mortality is around 50 percent. Research shows that locally 75 percent of an average lion’s diet is made up of deer. Another 10 percent of their diet consists of livestock, with 10 percent consisting of cats, both feral and domestic. The final 5 percent consists of a variety of other small mammals, including foxes, raccoons, skunks, rabbits and mice. While other research projects have shown they will eat dogs when necessary, dog predation is tragic but rare.

By taking sensible precautions and becoming aware of the signs and lifestyle of the mountain lion, we can marvel in their beauty without creating dangers either for ourselves or them.