Responding to Lion Attacks

For the second time in seven months a mountain lion has attacked and mauled a child in the remote Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park. The attack has raised a variety of public reactions ranging from demands to close the park to hunting down and killing all the cougars.

Both approaches are extreme and neither deserves serious consideration.

The attacks are shocking, and to some extent surprising, but there is no need to entirely shut down the park. The situation in Orange County is not much different than it is in many state and federal parks where people visit wilderness areas realizing the risks they face from bears, snakes and other creatures. Visitors are, after all, invading the animals’ natural habitat.

Compared to many other wild animals, mountain lions are considered to be generally shy creatures that avoid humans as much as possible. Cougar attacks have been rare. The mauling of a child seven months ago was believed to be the first known attack in California on a human by a mountain lion since 1909.

That is not to say that cougars aren’t potentially dangerous. They can be, as last week’s attack shows. It was an unfortunate reminder that wild animals must be considered wild. Especially in their natural habitat.

But black bears and deer injure more people every year than do cougars, according to state statistics. In Caspers park, there have been no problems in the campgrounds. The two lion attacks occurred on park trails.

Signs are posted in the park reminding people about the dangers from wildlife, including mountain lions, and of the importance of keeping children under adult supervision at all times.

Obviously more public awareness is needed. It’s up to the county to be more aggressive about providing it, and to warn visitors to all its wilderness parks, not just Caspers, about the potential hazards of invading lion habitats.

Dropping the ban on hunting cougars, which has been prohibited in California since 1971, is no solution either. Doing that would be a cruel and unwarranted reaction that would not prevent future attacks.

The problem is a natural result of urbanization closing in on the domain of the area’s wildlife.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors will be considering what to do about the cougars’ presence in Caspers Park on Wednesday. The board is expected to accept the recommendation from county and state officials to keep the 7,500-acre wilderness park, seven miles east of San Juan Capistrano, closed to the public for 60 days while continuing to study possible controls of the mountain lion population and develop stricter safety measures.

That’s a reasonable approach for now. It provides time to calmly seek ways to balance the people’s desire to safely visit remote areas with the need of wild animals for a natural environment in which to live.