When animals, people cross paths
A mountain lion that looked in a woman’s window — long enough for her to snap a photo — and bear scat found near Fairfax in the Marin foothills provided two more stunning tales last week in a series of wildlife encounters in Northern California.
They come in the aftermath of the lion attack on a 6-yearold boy in the foothills of the South Bay that gained national attention — and the hunt to find and kill the lion. The peek-a-boo lion: In Mendocino County, Cece Case was working in her home, sitting at a desk, when she heard a noise one evening, turned and was shocked to see a mountain lion at the window, peering at her. Despite her heart just about pounding a hole through her chest, she was able to gather herself and take two photos.
The lion might have been attracted to her house by her house cats, she said. Longtime field scout
Jeanne Jackson of Mendocino, a local nature writer, was the first to report the story to me. “The mountain lion was seen first in Point Arena, then the next day north of Anchor Bay and then that evening around 6:30 p.m. in Gualala (peering into a window at Cece Case’s house).” It hasn’t been seen for several days.
Marin bear: The idea that bears are roaming the wildlands of the Bay Area was confirmed again last week.
John Buckley, an avid cyclist, found a pile of bear scat in Marin, the fourth time in three years verifiable evi-dence of a bear has been photographed in the area. The e xact l ocat i on was near Fair fax in the Marin Watershed, where Buckley was riding from 5 Corners t o Deer Park on the fire road.
“I had passed that point 90 minutes earlier and it wasn’t there, ”he said, “so I turned around to check it out. It was almost black in color and full of some sort of coarse veget abl e matter ( chewed- up acorns?) but no hair or fur. ”
Since 2011, mountain bikers have reported similar encounters on the Alpine-Kent Pump Road near t he pump house at Kent Lake.
Lion hunt: The hunt last week for the mountain lion that attacked the 6-year-old boy — while at the leading edge of a group out for a hike — ended with the lion being treed by dogs and killed. The attack happened Sunday at the Picchetti Open Space Preserve, on the Zinfandel Trail, 1.2 miles from the trailhead at the Piccheti Winery on Montebello Road.
That the attack occurred at midday (the animals usually feed at dawn and dusk) and near a group (they usually pick out solo victims), is extremely unusual, and might show how desperate and hungry the lion was.
If the carrying capacity (amount of water, food, cover) of the habitat were filled, older lions would force the young lions to find their own turf, where food might be difficult to locate. In that case, tranquilizing and moving lions would not work because you would be transplanting them to another lion’s territory. That is probably how a young lion ended up on Rengstorff Avenue in Mountain View in May. It was forced out of the hills.
About 30 lions are tracked with GPS collars in the South Bay. They are difficult to locate, tranquilize and collar, so f ar more probably live there. Telegraph Hill coyote: The coyote at Telegraph has transfixed many. A coyote in the middle of San Francisco? Several readers have reported and photographed the coyote, which has been sighted near the intersection of Lombard and Montgomery, near the restaurant Julius Castle.
The best photo was provided by R.B. Cooper, which was published as part of Thursday’s wildlife gallery at www.SFGate.com.
Wrote Robert Riggins: “The coyote is not very scared of humans and I have seen him perhaps three times at dusk this summer (while) walking home from the Bay Club. I have read reports in your column about coyotes in Golden Gate Park but never imagined one so close to my home in densely populated Telegraph Hill.” Other sightings Sky Trail fox: Bill Barish and Melissa Murphy hiked the Sky Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore, and at the trailhead off Limantour Road, sighted a fox 20 yards from the gate, “clearly accustomed to the presence of humans, for better or for worse.” Orinda bobcat: Bobcat populations are high at parks in the Bay Area foothills, but because the animals are largely nocturnal, each sighting is special. In Orinda, a bobcat wandered into the yard of a home owned by Don Kavanagh. In the drought, with food hard to find, they are hunting house cats; keep them inside at night. Olympic Club coyote: Sightings of the coyotes at the Olympic Golf Club in San Francisco are getting to be, well, not common, but no longer shocking — and the challenge now is for golfers to get better photos of them. Q&A Q: “Did I see a bear? I saw what looked like a dead bear on the median of 152, near San Luis Reservoir. I’m 99 percent certain I saw what I saw. But no one believes me. Do you think it possible there could have been a bear in that locale?” — Carl Isackson
A: Wayward bears are more common than ever, like the one that visited the Little League game in Nipomo (near Santa Marina), but this was more than likely a large wild boar. The carcass of a large black boar easily could be mistaken for that of a bear. In addition, a few years ago, a friend of mine was hired to reduce a huge herd of wild pigs in that area. It all adds up.