At the top of the food chain in the natural world are the apex predators. They are the lions and leopards in Africa, the tigers in Burma, the jaguars in Brazil and big cats generally where they exist worldwide. Some say human beings reside at the very top of that list but that’s a topic for others to explore.
Historically there were three maybe four apex critters in the central valley of California: The grizzly bear (Ursus artos californicus), the gray wolf (Canus lupus), the mountain lion (Puma concolor) and maybe the jaguar (Panthera onca). Of those, only the mountain lion remains. The rest were extirpated from the state (the wolf and jaguar) or were hunted and trapped to extinction (the bear).
The mountain lion – also known as puma, cougar, or panther – is a large tan- or tawny-colored cat with a white belly, black stripes on its muzzle and black tips on its ears and tail. A male cat can be as large as eight feet long including its tail and weigh as much as 170 pounds. Females are slightly smaller being seven feet in length and weighing 120 pounds. In North America, only the jaguar is larger. Worldwide California’s lion is smaller than only three other cats, the lion, tiger and jaguar.
Pumas are solitary and elusive animals. They are ambush hunters that prey primarily on deer, elk, pronghorn and other large mammals, but the cat is an opportunistic feeder and won’t shy away from a meal of coyote, poultry, small livestock or pets.
About 40 percent of the state is considered suitable habitat for the big cat, including Merced county with its large rural areas and population of black-tailed deer, tule elk and feral pigs. Female lions require about 300 square miles of territory. Males roam across 500 square miles that may overlap many female ranges.
Locally, reports of puma sightings are rare, confirmed sightings even rarer. Often people mistake a bobcat for a mountain lion even though it is much smaller and has a “bobbed” tail. Nonetheless, there are pumas out there and people walking in places where the cats might reside need to be aware of their surroundings.
There have been 22 confirmed attacks by mountain lions on humans in California since 1986 of which three were fatal. None of those incidents occurred in the Central Valley. Historic records show only six fatal attacks statewide since 1890.
Mountain lions were once classified as bountied predators. From 1907 to 1963 more than 12,400 lions were killed in California. Presently between 3,200 and 4,500 pumas remain in the state and killing them is against the law unless a strictly controlled take permit is acquired or there is an immediate threat to public safety.
Grizzly bears didn’t fare as well as their feline neighbors. Once numbering more than 10,000 animals in the state, the bear was hunted to extinction by the 1920s. The last verified California grizzly bear sighting was near Yosemite in 1924. The gray wolf was extirpated from the state by the same year.
There have been discussions about reintroducing the grizzly bear to the Golden State, after all it is pictured on the state flag. But many believe that would lead to a Jurassic Park moment for the current human population since turning loose a 1,000-pound, eight-foot-tall carnivore in a native ecosystem only a fraction of its original size and with more than 400 times the number of people in it would be scary for both bear and human. It seems better to just let bygones be – well, you know.
The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, Merced National Wildlife Refuge and the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge comprise the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Its headquarters and visitor center are located just north of Los Banos off Highway 165 at 7376 South Wolfsen Road. The refuges are open to visitors daily from one half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset. The visitor center is generally open Monday through Friday except federal holidays from 8 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
