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Arizona Game and Fish Department officials say they have no choice but to try to remove mountain lions being routinely sighted in Sabino Canyon. A spokesman for the department says the big cats are a threat to public safety.
“Mountain lions have been in frequent, close contact with the public in Sabino Canyon in the past several months, and have shown little or no fear of humans,” says Tom Whetten. “The department has recently received additional information that heightens our concerns about public safety. These lions pose a risk to canyon visitors.”
Mountain lions, also called cougars, are typically secretive and are seldom seen. But department officials say a spate of recent sightings and incidents in Sabino Canyon require a response.
Mark Zornes, one of the department’s mountain lion experts, says that once cougars cease to show fear of humans and become accustomed to being around people, the probability of an attack on a human being increases. He cites what he calls several “red flags” that mandate lion removal in Sabino Canyon.
“If mountain lions become daylight active, that is one cause for concern,” he says. “When cougars show no fear of people that is red flag number two. If they begin stalking people, that’s a big red flag. The mountain lions in Sabino Canyon are raising all the red flags.”
Zornes says most recent cougar attacks, including two attacks in Orange County, Calif., on Jan. 8, typically occur in outdoor recreation areas where people are hiking, jogging and mountain biking. In the California attacks, a 35-year old mountain biker was killed and a 30-year old woman was mauled by the same lion.
“Predators such as mountain lions have what we call a predatory response — they see something running away and their natural impulse is to catch the fleeing prey item. Mountain lions often lie along trails in heavy cover, which is conducive to their ambush-style of hunting. Joggers, mountain bikers and mountain lions are not a healthy mix,” he says.
Game and Fish Department officials also say that capturing and relocating any mountain lion that might be found in Sabino Canyon is not an option.
“We simply cannot take the chance of relocating and releasing a mountain lion that constitutes a threat to humans. Not when lives are at stake,” Whetten says.
Wildlife-tracking experts had been brought in previously to locate and remove the offending mountain lions. “So far our experts have not been able to trail the cougars because of the exceptionally steep terrain in the canyon or due to the large number of visitors,” Whetten says.
Since February, the professional trackers have discovered the presence of at least three and perhaps four mountain lions in the area, which receives more than one million visitors each year. At the height of the visitor season, January through April, more than 2,000 people a day visit Sabino and Bear canyons.
The last mountain lion attack occurred in Arizona in April 2000 when a 4-year-old girl was seriously injured while camping with her family at Bartlett Lake near Phoenix. The lion crushed the back of the girl’s skull, nicked her carotid artery and inflicted several deep puncture wounds before her father was able to chase the animal away. A short time later, the lion returned to the scene and was killed by a Game and Fish Department officer.
Mountain lions can be found throughout Arizona and are not an endangered species: the statewide population is estimated at 2,500 animals. Mountain lions are top-level predators, killing and eating primarily deer, but also elk, livestock and other domestic animals. Mature males weigh as much as 150 pounds and females 100 pounds.
Biologists say that the removal of a few isolated lions will not cause any long term damage to Arizona’s overall mountain lion population.
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