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MOUNTAIN LIONS VS DEVELOPMENT
In my neighboring big city of Tucson, we have a mountain lion problem. The city limit pushes up against the border of the state park like New York skyscrapers up against the East River.
California studies demonstrate that the mountain lions, like coyotes, rats, cockroaches and pigeons adapt quite well to urban encroachment. They routinely stalk and eat domestic livestock, pets and the occasional human. This past winter on the outskirts of Los Angeles one lion killed and ate one person and mauled another.
In our case, park visitors were reporting lions coming uncomfortably close, one being sighted crossing the parking lot of a nearby school. Our state Game & Fish Department responded immediately, closing the park and initiating a hunt to eliminate the lion or lions. Suddenly the citizenry developed a conscience. They realized it is not the fault of the lions that they are losing their fear of humans.
The state politicians with their finger in the wind of public opinion, stepped into the problem flat-footed. They halted the hunt. They wrung their hands, waffled, and looked for someone to blame. Someone proposed we bar visitors to the park indefinitely. This went over like a frog in a punch bowl.
Then to assuage our guilt we decided we could capture and permanently incarcerate the lions. Time went by as we twiddled our thumbs. The Game & Fish got more ensnared in the tar baby. There was a piling on of armchair quarterbacks blaming the Game and Fish, of all people.
Today, the lions have drifted on, one was captured, the park is re-opened, precautions have been given. The mass of humanity bordering the park has pulled the wool down over its eyes, the lion issue has receded.
The politicians, activists, and concerned citizens who blamed the Game & Fish for overreacting are now having discussions about how they can improve the Game & Fish. Some are demanding change. They continue to vacillate. But everyone who took their cheap shots at the Game & Fish is only one human-death-by-mountain-lion away from the biggest CYA (cover your bottom) scandal Arizona has seen since Bruce Babbitt said hed help the ranchers.
It is a noble goal to try and accommodate the lions. It is easy to say, Close the canyon, limit development, reduce human contact. Its easy to say unless theyre talking about your house, your canyon and your picnic.
This issue is easy to sweep under the rug.
However, it is not smart or fair to tie the hands of the Game & Fish and then blame them. They know more about lion behavior than most of us, and were just trying to do their job. Cause, think about it, who are you going to call next time it happens?
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