Mountain Lions

Mountain lions were sighted at opposite ends of the San Fernando Valley on Monday afternoon but in both cases the animals were gone before authorities arrived. Several residents spotted a mountain lion walking down Elben Avenue near La Tuna Canyon in Sun Valley about 4:30 p.m. About an hour later, a man in the 3900 block of Corbin Avenue in Tarzana spotted a lion in the hills above his house, said Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Ed Funes.

Please help save the mountain lions. My husband and I and all of our friends oppose the trophy hunting of the mountain lion. Even the title--trophy hunting--sounds so wrong. A living lion to be killed as a trophy. We ask your help on this important life-and-death issue. MR. and MRS. JESSE McPHERSON Mission Viejo

Six years ago, a state ballot initiative banned the hunting of mountain lions--also called cougars or pumas--allowing the animals to be killed by state officials only when they pose a threat to public safety. But if voters repeal their special protection with Proposition 197 in the March 26 state primary election, hunting the cougars would be allowed to control their population.

Trackers hunted Tuesday for the mountain lion they say stalked and killed a jogger in the rugged Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento. The mutilated body of Barbara Schoener, 40, was discovered Sunday in the isolated Auburn Lake Trails area of El Dorado County. Sheriff's detectives said she had been attacked by a cougar that bit her neck and crushed her skull, then dragged the partially consumed body about 300 feet and buried it under leaves and debris.

Sightings of mountain lions have increased recently along foothill communities from La Canada Flintridge to La Verne, some in residential areas. Animal officials say the sightings seem to be the result of an escalating population of the big cats throughout the foothills. "We're getting an awful lot more mountain lion sightings in that foothills area," said Gerald Spansail, the Los Angeles region's captain for the state Department of Fish and Game.

An initiative sponsored by environmentalists that would restrict mountain lion hunting and set aside $30 million annually to protect wildlife habitats was approved Tuesday for the June, 1990, ballot. Secretary of State March Fong Eu said supporters of the initiative submitted about 425,000 valid signatures. It needed at least 372,178 signatures to make the ballot.

Authorities Friday warned residents to protect small children and animals after mountain lions were spotted in the hillsides bordering residential areas in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch. Wildlife Officer Dennis Kroeplin of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation said that the lions, possibly an adult male and female and a young cub, have been spotted several times over the last several months, most recently on Sept.

Nanse Browne was out for a peaceful late afternoon jog in a Monterey-area park when a mountain lion charged her from behind. Browne, 42, stared it down--until the mountain lion finally slunk away. These days, Browne heads a new support group for mountain lion victims, calling the wild cats "serial killers" that should be systematically thinned out by state wildlife officials--not just when someone is attacked or killed.

A mountain lion wandered into a gated community and was found Wednesday in the backyard of a startled resident. The big cat did not harm anyone during its brief stay in the affluent area, though it did manage to escape once from the California Fish and Game Department wardens sent to capture it, said Sgt. Marty Dailey of the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station. "It was never on the verge of attacking," Dailey said. "It appeared to be more afraid of us than vice versa."

They are old enough to growl and swat at you with their sharp claws, but too young to survive on their own in the wild. That's why two orphaned mountain lion cubs from Wyoming were recently given a new home at the Wildlife Waystation shelter for abused or abandoned wild animals. Martine Colette, director of the shelter, drove to St. George, Utah, to meet Wyoming wildlife authorities and pick up the cubs. Colette drove the young animals to Los Angeles in a trailer.