Mountain Lions

Police officers shot and killed a mountain lion cub Tuesday after it charged officers who surrounded it. Santa Paula Police Chief Steve MacKinnon said his department began receiving reports of mountain lions in hillside neighborhoods Friday and the reports continued over the weekend. On Sunday, police made two reverse 911 calls to residents in those neighborhoods. A resident called police about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday after seeing one of the cats in a yard in the 300 block of Dana Drive.

Like some other residents of this small town, Mary Elizabeth Goodwyn doesn't go outside after dark much anymore. Goodwyn, 81, used to welcome the dusk under a red maple tree in her frontyard every evening, but that was before cougars started showing up in Blackstone -- or at least in Blackstone's newspaper. Since 2003, the Courier-Record has published at least 15 articles on cougar sightings in town and in the neighboring 41,000-acre Army National Guard training base. Wildlife officials say that except for a known population of 100 in Florida, the large cats -- also called mountain lions, pumas, panthers and the fitting "ghost cats" -- were wiped out in the eastern United States by 1900.

Whenever some local volunteer at a magnificent state park tucked away on California's Central Coast waxes on about mountain lions, bobcats and rattlesnakes to a couple of wide-eyed Angelenos, you can be pretty sure of two things. First, probably nothing more predatory than a turkey vulture will be encountered over the next 48 hours. Second, what may actually be going on (at least unconsciously) during this warmly grave reception is an attempt at crowd control.

A young woman walked into a restaurant last week and sat close enough to get a good look at Anne Hjelle's face. A mountain lion had torn off the left side four years before, leaving it hanging by a flap of skin. Six surgeries hadn't camouflaged the scars. "She saw me and had a deer-in-the-headlights look," said Hjelle, 35, of Mission Viejo. "She quickly got up and moved so she didn't have to look at me." The stranger's reaction didn't hurt Hjelle's feelings.

An engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge was walking across a bridge to work about 8:45 a.m. Jan. 16 when he spotted something moving in the creek below. At first he thought it was a coyote, but as he got closer he could make out the low build, hulking forequarters and tawny fur. Mountain lion. The engineer, Matthew Dickie, moved to grab his camera, and the animal crouched and froze. Other people walking to work noticed and peered over the bridge too. I'll be damned.

A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd of Deadwood came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard. "I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said. "I didn't realize what it was until it took a leap and jumped up on the side of my hot tub. We locked eyes, and it kicked off of the hot tub and ran away. When it jumped, it flipped my robe into the hot tub."

Homeowners along Los Angeles-area foothills concerned about the rare but frightening attacks by mountain lions on household pets may find relief in rainfall and their own precautionary measures, experts say. When deer and other animals approach residential areas in search of food and water, the mountain lions that feed on them are more likely to follow them closer to homes, experts say.

After three reported mountain lion sightings in recent days, Ventura police Monday closed off popular hiking trails above Arroyo Verde Park on the city's east end. Trail heads were blocked and signs posted warning the public that a mountain lion, and possibly cubs, were on the prowl in the chaparral-covered hills. "We are just warning the public to stay away as a precaution right now," said Ventura Police Lt. Ray Vance.

AN hour before dusk, when the redwood shadows on the popular Brown Creek hiking trail are long and dark, a mountain lion sprang from a huckleberry bush onto Jim Hamm's back, gripped his face with giant claws and tore at the back of his skull with its fangs. Looking at the ghastly photographs a few hours later, wildlife forensics specialist Jim Banks shook his head. "Damn near scalped him," Banks muttered.

Re "Residents are howling at the sight of coyotes," Jan. 23 As a resident of Sherman Oaks near the Stone Canyon Reservoir, all the fuss by residents of Hancock Park over coyote sightings is, frankly, amusing. In our backyard, we've seen deer, raccoons, skunks, mountain lions, rattlesnakes and, of course, coyotes. The coyotes we frequently see here walking the streets try to pretend they are dogs. Living with wildlife is one of the great pleasures of living in L.A. PAUL SAILER Los Angeles