Mountain Lions

LACMA's rock party Re " Mass attraction: A traveling 340-ton boulder draws thousands of fans into its orbit ," March 9, and " At journey's end ," March 11 The journey of rock art on its path to LACMA is an unbelievable example of a can-do attitude. Someone said: "I want to transport a 340-ton rock through some of the most densely populated areas in the United States," and someone responded: "I can do this. " This effort is a marvel of engineering; I am in awe of the people who could successfully accomplish this enormous endeavor.

War without end Re " A drug war success story? ," Opinion, Feb. 29 William C. Rempel's Op-Ed article on the 1989 cocaine bust in Sylmar that ultimately strengthened the Mexican drug cartels illustrates the folly of the continuing war on drugs. This war is an arms race in which the opponent has no morals and no qualms about a scorched-earth strategy. Increasingly, the casualties are innocent people and entire economic sectors, such as Mexican tourism and trips by charitable organizations to the country.

When Daniel W. Richards, the president of the California Fish and Game Commission, went to Idaho and shot a mountain lion, the dead carcass of which he held up gleefully for a photo, he triggered outraged calls for his resignation by California state legislators, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sierra Club California and the head of the Humane Society of the United States. Mountain lions are a protected species in California and have been off-limits to hunters for the last 20 years by virtue of a successful ballot measure.

Just about every time a new operating system is released, there are devices that get left behind, and things are no different with Apple's OS X Mountain Lion. This, sadly, is an inherent side effect of progress as Apple moves ahead and continues what it started in Mac OS X Lion , in bringing OS X closer to iOS . But, if you have an older Mac that will be stuck on Lion and thus, stuck a bit in the past, we won't blame you for feeling irritated about it -- as great of an operating system as Lion is. Apple hasn't yet released its official list of Macs that won't get support for Mountain Lion and company officials weren't available for comment on the matter on Friday morning.

Apple's next Mac operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, will bring far more integration to iOS found on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch when it arrives this summer. The Cupertino, Calif., company announced Mountain Lion on Thursday, detailing the new version of what was previously known as Mac OS X on its website for consumers. Programmers, meanwhile, were offered the ability to download Mountain Lion so they can get started integrating their apps with the new operating system before its release.

The Tejon Ranch has agreed to pay $136,500 in fines and restitution for illegally killing at least 11 mountain lions to prevent them from competing for game with high-paying trophy hunters, the Kern County district attorney's office announced Friday. The settlement capped a 10-month investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game into claims made by a former Tejon Ranch Corp. hunting guide who said he was fired after he complained about the illegal killing of the wild predators.

Burbank animal control officers Tuesday rescued two malnourished mountain lion cubs that were hiding under a parked car — but not before residents reportedly tried hitting them with a broomstick. The cubs weigh 5 pounds each and were taken to a refuge in Calabasas. Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said residents called in the cubs' location in the 600 block of East Orange Grove Avenue about 10:30 a.m. The cubs were so small, they were initially reported as baby bobcats. Some residents were using brooms to try to hit the cubs or shoo them away, Ryburn said.

Take a walk on the wild side this fall when Flashlight Safari tours bring mountain visitors face to face with creatures of the night. The Big Bear Lake tours, which are Saturday nights at Moonridge Animal Park , put the spotlight on the zoo's nocturnal creatures -- the wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and foxes that come alive after dark. Participants in the two-hour tours get a chance to hear the howls and see the eyes that glow in the flashlight beams. “It's the eyes -- the eyes say it all,” said Debbie Richardson, the animal park's curator.

A mountain lion found dead in the western Santa Monica Mountains was killed and mutilated by poachers, according to state fish and game wardens who are seeking tips in the case. "We're going to have to get lucky on this. There's virtually no forensic evidence," said Andrew Hughan, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. Investigators, he added, are hoping a member of the public will hear "somebody bragging about how they killed a mountain lion, and they'll call us" at (800)

One of roughly a half-dozen mountain lions living in the Santa Monica Mountains was killed Tuesday trying to cross the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center at the start of the morning rush hour. Circumstances of the death, apparently from a collision with a vehicle, were not known, and the California Highway Patrol said it had no record of an emergency call reporting an animal-related incident in that area Tuesday. "We believe it may have made such a daring crossing attempt possibly because it was being flushed out of the area it was in by another male lion," said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.