WATSONVILLE — If the thought of mountain lions roaming near your neighborhood or hiking trail makes you afraid, don”t be.
Pumas are way more threatened by people than the other way around, says Zara McDonald, who”s on a mission to reduce paranoia and increase appreciation for the predator cat.
McDonald, the founder and executive director of a Mill Valley research and education organization dedicated to preservation of the mountain lion and other wild cats around the world, brought a message of peaceful coexistence to a standing-room-only crowd Thursday at a Watsonville Wetlands Watch presentation at the Fitz Wetlands Education Center.
“If we were on the menu, hundreds of us would be dying,” she said. “They”re doing a fabulous job of avoiding us, despite the fact that we”re ripping up their habitat and moving into their territory.”
An entrepreneur who holds a master”s degree in business administration from UC Berkeley”s Haas School of Business, McDonald became interested in mountain lions after two encounters with them while trail running in Marin County. In 2006 she founded Felidae Conservation Fund, which operates the Bay Area Puma Project and has collaborated with UC Santa Cruz researchers for several years.
Using technologically sophisticated tracking collars, remote cameras and field testing, researchers are expanding their understanding of mountain lion behavior, reproduction, movement and challenges.
About 40 percent of mountain lion habitat in North and South America has been lost, McDonald said. What”s left has been fragmented by urban encroachment and road systems. As a result, lions increasingly come into conflict with humans, and their genetic diversity is at risk.
“If we”ve learned anything, it”s that they don”t want to have anything to do with us,” she said.
People can return the favor.
Too often lions are shot after killing unprotected pets or hobby livestock, for instance. Protecting pets by keeping them inside or in adequately fenced enclosures at night can save lives on both sides.
Busy freeways prove fatal to pumas, as well. In October, a young male lion who captured Santa Cruz”s imagination last year when he had to be rescued from an Ocean Street aqueduct, died after being hit on Highway 17. He wasn”t the first. At least two other pumas have met their end while attempting to cross 17 in recent years. Freeway overpasses or culverts designed with wildlife in mind can provide safe passage, McDonald said.
Puma is one of 40 names for a creature that”s been historically feared and revered and plays a critical role in ecosystems, she said. Humans, as well as other wildlife, benefit from their presence. They prey on weak and diseased deer, for example, not only strengthening the surviving population, but also helping stop the spread of illness, such as Lyme disease.
“Once fear is removed from the equation, we can embrace what is their role,” McDonald said.
Researchers estimate California is home to about 2,500 to 3,000 mountain lions, including 50 to 70 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. McDonald said the natural world enriches the human community, and pumas are part of that,
“To imagine them gone should disturb all of us,” she said.
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