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01-15-04, 02:35 PM
The story from Velonews in particular was rich. Quote: "To a cougar, the difference between a person bent over fixing a bicycle and a small animal may be indistinguishable."
Yeah, right. A mountain lion who's seen people all his life can't tell the difference between a human being, with his biking clothes, his helmet, and his bicycle and a rabbit.
I agree, the notion is hogwash. The lion saw a person in a particularly vulnerable position and like any good opportunistic predator decided to take advantage of the situtation.
All the usual eco-brainwashing aside, the article does accurately point out that these attacks are uncommon. Still, the danger from lions when you're in lion habitat is real. To refer to the favorite comparison of the friends of maneaters everywhere, lightning too is an uncommon threat. But if you're camping outdoors in a thunderstorm you'd better take it seriously.
Agreed. A simple precaution would be to always ride with a buddy, preferably one who is smaller, slower and less alert then you are :D .
The cause of this sort of attack is actually simpler than all of the speculation about body language, urban planning, and all the rest we always get in these stories. Lions are dangerous animals. They're powerful, aggressive predators. They don't usually hunt human beings, but they're smart and adaptable. So, if enough lions live among people, some lions are going to find themselves curious about these fat, numerous, dopey, inattentive, and slow creatures. A few of these attacks, and in increasing numbers, are inevitable as lions' numbers increase. Unless people avoid public parks altogether, stop keeping pets, and stop taking their children on hikes, lions are going to attack people now and then.
Are we willing to live with that?
Just having lions out in the park somewhere, sort of makes the park more wild, more challenging and much, much more satisfying. The great predators have a wild sort of appeal. Also seeing one is an unforgettable sight. And as mentioned, very few lions ever turn to sampling people as prey items. The last person killed in CA was in 1994 and I bet in that time nearly 100 have been killed by lightning in the same state.
As for people living with predators, the people in Churchill Ontario on Hudson's Bay live with polar bears. The bears congregate there while they are waiting for the ice to form on the bay so they can hunt seals. The bears get hungry and they are not above considering devouring people. They often wander through town. People just listen to their radios and call in when they see a bear. They seem to cope readily enough to large numbers of huge dangerous predators that make mountain lions look well like kittens. As far as I know, they haven't lost a citizen to bears in years. But the bears do keep them on their toes for part of the year.
I read this morning that 3 people in a county south of mine have been killed in the last few weeks on those all terrain vehicles. We also lose inattentive drivers around here all the time to "retention ponds". Retention ponds are small, shallow lakes put in developments to catch excess rain water and are often near roads. People drive into them at night when they drive off of the road. I don't know why driving off the road is so popular but it is. The local paper seems to blame the retention ponds. Do they think the ponds should yield the right of way? Anyrate, the people are generally found in the next dry spell when the water levels in the ponds drops revealing the car and deceased occupant. There is one pond down by Disney that used to snare about 3-4 people every year even though there were signs and barriers, people still managed to drive in and perish. I don't know if they solved that problem or not. The local paper kind of blamed Disney for not putting out enough signs and rumble strips, but after the first couple of dozen what more did they want?
Yeah, right. A mountain lion who's seen people all his life can't tell the difference between a human being, with his biking clothes, his helmet, and his bicycle and a rabbit.
I agree, the notion is hogwash. The lion saw a person in a particularly vulnerable position and like any good opportunistic predator decided to take advantage of the situtation.
All the usual eco-brainwashing aside, the article does accurately point out that these attacks are uncommon. Still, the danger from lions when you're in lion habitat is real. To refer to the favorite comparison of the friends of maneaters everywhere, lightning too is an uncommon threat. But if you're camping outdoors in a thunderstorm you'd better take it seriously.
Agreed. A simple precaution would be to always ride with a buddy, preferably one who is smaller, slower and less alert then you are :D .
The cause of this sort of attack is actually simpler than all of the speculation about body language, urban planning, and all the rest we always get in these stories. Lions are dangerous animals. They're powerful, aggressive predators. They don't usually hunt human beings, but they're smart and adaptable. So, if enough lions live among people, some lions are going to find themselves curious about these fat, numerous, dopey, inattentive, and slow creatures. A few of these attacks, and in increasing numbers, are inevitable as lions' numbers increase. Unless people avoid public parks altogether, stop keeping pets, and stop taking their children on hikes, lions are going to attack people now and then.
Are we willing to live with that?
Just having lions out in the park somewhere, sort of makes the park more wild, more challenging and much, much more satisfying. The great predators have a wild sort of appeal. Also seeing one is an unforgettable sight. And as mentioned, very few lions ever turn to sampling people as prey items. The last person killed in CA was in 1994 and I bet in that time nearly 100 have been killed by lightning in the same state.
As for people living with predators, the people in Churchill Ontario on Hudson's Bay live with polar bears. The bears congregate there while they are waiting for the ice to form on the bay so they can hunt seals. The bears get hungry and they are not above considering devouring people. They often wander through town. People just listen to their radios and call in when they see a bear. They seem to cope readily enough to large numbers of huge dangerous predators that make mountain lions look well like kittens. As far as I know, they haven't lost a citizen to bears in years. But the bears do keep them on their toes for part of the year.
I read this morning that 3 people in a county south of mine have been killed in the last few weeks on those all terrain vehicles. We also lose inattentive drivers around here all the time to "retention ponds". Retention ponds are small, shallow lakes put in developments to catch excess rain water and are often near roads. People drive into them at night when they drive off of the road. I don't know why driving off the road is so popular but it is. The local paper seems to blame the retention ponds. Do they think the ponds should yield the right of way? Anyrate, the people are generally found in the next dry spell when the water levels in the ponds drops revealing the car and deceased occupant. There is one pond down by Disney that used to snare about 3-4 people every year even though there were signs and barriers, people still managed to drive in and perish. I don't know if they solved that problem or not. The local paper kind of blamed Disney for not putting out enough signs and rumble strips, but after the first couple of dozen what more did they want?