Bears and Other Predators Invade U.S. Neighborhoods

Popular Mechanics ^ | July 2009 | Erin McCarthy

[jazusamo]

As once-threatened animal populations including black bears, mountain lions and alligators rebound and people move into former wildlands, predators are showing up precisely where they don't belong: in backyards. And the wildlife isn't as afraid of us as we might think. Welcome to the food chain.

It was the perfect ending to a perfect afternoon. Gary Mann and his girlfriend Helen were watching the sun go down after a satisfying day clearing brush in the backyard of Mann’s home in Sutter Creek, Calif. A pile of branches and twigs was burning merrily, throwing shadows into the growing darkness as the couple’s three dogs—a 50-pound Shar-Pei named Tigger and a pair of Rottweiler mixes, Takota and Tenaya—played at their feet.

Mann’s home is the kind of place nature lovers dream of. The house is set back from the road on a densely wooded, 10-acre parcel bordered by government land and private property; wild turkeys and deer—up to a dozen at a time—wander through daily. Beyond the backyard lawn, 80 feet from the house, ponderosa and oak grow thickly on the steep slopes of a hill.

That February night, Helen heard crackling and snapping of underbrush and saw something large moving along the edge of the trees. When Tigger went to investigate, with Takota close behind, Mann didn’t stop them, even though he knew mountain lions roamed the area. One had peered through his neighbor’s window, scaring the woman inside, and another neighbor had recently seen a big male lion in Mann’s driveway. “The lions come in pretty far,” Mann says. “Common sense would have said, don’t let the dogs go. But I’ve been living up here for eight years, and it’s rare that they attack dogs.”

Suddenly, the couple heard Tigger “screaming for her life,” Mann says. When he ran down to the edge of the woods, he could only see shadows and fleeting movement in the thick underbrush. Whatever was attacking the Shar-Pei growled at him. Takota rushed in, and then it was over—the animal released Tigger and took off. “We think Takota scared it,” Mann says. “It all happened in about 10 seconds.”

Tigger’s injuries were serious. The skin over her head had been split open to the bone, her left eye almost torn out. Deep claw marks ran down her back. Mann held the wounds closed as he and Helen rushed Tigger to the vet, who confirmed that the injuries had been caused by a mountain lion.

Tigger survived, but since the incident Mann has kept the dogs out of the woods. “I’m still here and the lion is still here,” he says. “My neighbors said it was up at their property two nights ago. To attack a dog near a house when two adults are out in the yard with a fire going—that’s when you have to start worrying. There are lots of kids just a couple of blocks from here.”

When Europeans settled the New World, they dealt with predators by showing them the business end of a gun. Wherever pioneers settled, populations of large predators—mountain lions, bears, wolves, alligators—plummeted or disappeared entirely. That search-and-destroy mission continued virtually unabated until the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and ’70s, when the national attitude began to evolve. People came to believe that what was left of wilderness and its inhabitants should be preserved for future generations.

This ideology has clearly worked: Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, 14 species of animals that were on the brink of extinction have recovered. Alligators were removed from the list in 1987; gray wolves in 2009. The grizzly bear, confined mostly to Yellowstone National Park in the lower 48 states, was delisted in 2007. As for once heavily hunted mountain lions, some 50,000 of the big cats now inhabit North America, with populations in the United States as far east as North Dakota. Experts predict that lions eventually will reinhabit the Adirondacks in New York, the Maine woods and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

Few people anticipated that rebounding populations would create a new problem: an increase in animal attacks as predators returned to former ranges now occupied by humans. In August 2002, a black bear killed a 5-month-old girl in the Catskills, a hundred miles northwest of New York City; the baby had been sleeping in a carriage on the porch. In January 2004, a mountain lion killed a male bicyclist in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County, Calif., then attacked a 31-year-old woman a few hours later. Other bicyclists managed to save the victim, but not before she sustained serious injuries. In October 2007, an alligator snatched and killed an 83-year-old woman outside her daughter’s home in Savannah, Ga. The next day, her body was found in a pond, hands and a foot missing. And, in May 2008, a coyote bit a 2-year-old girl playing in a Chino Hills, Calif., park and attempted to drag her off.

Though the trend is worrisome, the absolute number of attacks remains small. Fatal black bear attacks on humans have doubled since the late 1970s, increasing from one to just two incidents per year. (About six people are injured each year.) Between 1890 and 2008, there were 110 mountain lion attacks in North America; half of the 20 fatalities resulting from these attacks occurred in the past two decades. Despite an alligator population too large to count, the U.S. had just 391 attacks and 18 fatalities between 1948 and 2005. Coyotes have caused only one known fatality in the U.S.

Still, the relationship between animals and humans is proving to be more complex than simply kill ’em all or love ’em all—even though some of the old, romantic ideas about living at one with nature linger. “If you ask people why they moved where they did, you discover that they moved to be immersed in nature and wildlife,” says Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado–Boulder. “The fastest way to decrease the experience is to start killing the animals.”

Whether homeowners welcome large animals into their neighborhoods or see them as life-threatening intruders, most people recognize that we’ve entered a new era: Predators and humans today often share the same terrain, and their daily routines intersect in ways that challenge conventional ideas about man and nature.

Article continues at link

[jazusamo]

In 2008, Anne Hjelle returned to the trail where she was attacked
by a mountain lion four years before. The 122-pound cougar bit
Hjelle 40 times; 200 stitches and six surgeries were required to
repair the damage to her face.

[domenad]

May I suggest the Bennelli 12 gauge autoloader. Put any bear, cougar, or T-Rex in your yard out of your misery.

[jazusamo]

Losing fear of humans Ping!

[PeteB570]

Never send a Shar-Pei to a Rottie investigation.

[jazusamo]

Yes, predators coming into residential areas should be eliminated to reinstill the fear of man in others.

[Frantzie]

BS - it is urban sprawl due to illegal immigration. The OLD Sierra Club was a real enviro group where they wanted to keep the population from exploding. The current Sierra Club is run by the DNC, La Raza etc and they are very pro illegal alien.

Uncontrollled population growth will make america more like a third world country and ungovernable. It is already happening witness the Islamist.

[dead]

We’re the only species in the history of evolution to voluntarily move ourselves down to the middle of the food chain.

[NMEwithin]

Mossberg Special Purpose 500 .12 gauge works nicely..

[stuartcr]

Perhaps it should be re-written as;
...backyards are showing up precisely where they don’t belong: in wildlands.

If these people love the woods and wildlife so much, why don’t they live in places where there already is housing, and contribute the money difference to preserving the wildlife? They can then visit on their time-off.

[Retired Greyhound]

Agree

[jazusamo]

This is also happening in neighborhoods that have been established for fifty years and more due to the increase in predator numbers.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this Upper Midwest/outdoors/rural list please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.

Nasty Europeans. Predators need to eat too. When Europeans settled the New World, they dealt with predators by showing them the business end of a gun.

[Skooz]

Precisely.

Well said.

You move into the woods, expect to see wood dwelling critters there.

[Flycatcher]

Few people anticipated that rebounding populations would create a new problem: an increase in animal attacks as predators returned to former ranges now occupied by humans.

Few people?!! Now that's rich. Anyone with any sort of experience in the wilderness could have predicted this. But of course our federal legislators -- almost to a man -- have never really spent time in the wilderness. Their policies are soft-headed romance, and not practical in any way.

Still, the relationship between animals and humans is proving to be more complex than simply kill ’em all or love ’em all—even though some of the old, romantic ideas about living at one with nature linger.

Bingo! To disabuse our liberal Mandarins of the notion of a romanticized "Nature," I suggest they actually spend one full week -- alone! -- in "Nature."

And then film it secretly. Now that would be a reality show I'd pay to watch!

Great post, Jaz!

[Havok]

Here in NH in the boonies I have two defenses.
1. I own dogs to warn me of anything, and to be used as fodder which gives me time to react. (Its what dogs are REALLY for)

2. I pack a .44 magnum outside with a 30-06 rifle near by.

Anyone who thinks its bad when I drop a bear is either an idiot, or hasn’t tried my bear sausage yet!

[hiredhand]

Ping!...this should ring a bell.

[hiredhand]

...staggered with 4B+ and slugs!

[rickomatic]

Not sure about Kalifornia, but here in Washington State the problem of human/predator encounters increasing has another contributing factor to consider. This state’s voters in their “wisdom” a few years back outlawed through initiative the baiting of bears for hunting, and using dogs to hunt bears and cougar. A few generations of critters unafraid of the canine species makes them bolder. Add that the sprawl and you will get more encounters. I don’t necessarily hear people whining about the enconters and wanting to elimiate all the predators. We just want to get the balance back to where it should be. That is with us on the top of the food chain, rather than another poster stated, in the middle.

[jazusamo]

Well said, Fly.

When legislatures or the people by referendum protect predators and even reintroduce them into areas due to the emotions of animal rights and anti hunting nuts those additional predators have to exist somewhere. They are now showing up in established residential areas.

[rstark56]

This is why we need more hunters. With all the idiots wanting to save all the little fury creaters, the population of wild animals are growing. Its not that humans are invading their habitat, its the regulations that have limited the time and place where hunting can take place. When there are more and more serious encounters with wild animals maybe some moron will have the light bulb go on and extend the hunting season and the types of animals. Can you dinner!