North American Mountain Lions: Shot Dead in Yucca Valley, California

Summary: Law enforcers and wildlife managers selected shooting, not saving, one of the North American mountain lions in Yucca Valley, California, Dec. 11, 2018.

mountain lion, hunkered down, with ears straight up: Morongo Basin Sheriff's Station @MorongoBasinSheriffsStation, via Facebook Dec. 11, 2018

A caged-chicken owner, Fish and Wildlife Service officials and Morongo Basin Station deputies agreed to apprehend, not assist, one of the North American mountain lions of Yucca Valley, California, Dec. 11, 2018.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department press releases Dec. 11, and Dec. 13, 2018, bring up a town crime scene in the 5900 block of Avalon Avenue. Deputies chased after 10:16 p.m. Pacific Time Monday (6:16 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time Tuesday), and cornered after 10:38 p.m. Tuesday (6:38 a.m. Wednesday), a mountain lion. Their descriptions do not divulge the amount or type of "several animals" among the "homeowner's caged livestock" as dead Monday and as "injured and deceased" Tuesday.

Chicken or poultry, not evocations of cattle, goats and sheep, exactly expresses the caged captives that the scared, starving, surrounded mountain lion allegedly endeavored to eat.

Breeding, birthing and parenting months fill the 12- to 20-year life cycles of otherwise solitary mature mountain lions with communal feeding, physical contact and vocal communications.

Physically and sexually mature female mountain lions go through a three-month gestation before giving birth to a one- to six-kitten litter every two to three years. Black-brown-spotted, blind, deaf, tawny-coated 8.01- to 14.99-ounce (227- to 425-gram) kittens have hearing and sight as one- to two-week-olds and mature coats as 12- to 14-week-olds. Mountain lions, identified scientifically in 1771 by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778) inhabit their mothers' home territories until physical independence as 18- to 24-month-olds.

Mountain lions never journey far from their extended families and juggle 12- to 100-plus-square-mile (31.08- to 258.99-square-kilometer) desert, forested, grassy, mountainous, swampy, wooded neighboring, overlapping territories.

Black-muzzled, red-, silver-, tawny-bodied, round-eared, small-headed, white-throated, white-bellied physically and sexually mature two- to three-plus-year-olds know growling, hissing, mewing, purring, screaming, spitting, squeaking, whistling, yowling vocalizations.

Long-bodied, long-legged,  long-tailed mountain lions, labeled Puma concolor (from Runa Shimi puma "cougar" and Latin concolor, "uniform color"), log 18.04- to 40.03-foot (5.5- to 12.2-meter) leaps. The Felidae (from Latin fēlis, "cat" and Greek εἶδος, eîdos, "appearance") family member nightly maintains hunts and swims after deer, elk, porcupines, rabbits and wild boar. Females net 3.77- to 4.49-foot (1.15- to 1.37-meter) head-body and 0.57- to 2.23-foot (0.57- to 0.68-meter) tail lengths and 74.96- to 105.82-pound (34- to 48-kilogram) weights.

Males obtain 4.36- to 4.49-foot (1.33- to 1.37-meter) head-body and 2.19- to 2.23-foot (0.67- to 0.68-meter) tail lengths and 116.84- to 158.3-pound (53- to 72-kilogram) weights.

Mountain lions possess black-backed ears, black-tipped tails, white-sided legs, 1.41- to 2.0-foot (0.43- to 0.61-meter) female and 1.77- to 2.23-foot (0.54- to 0.68-meter) male shoulder heights.

North America from southern Canada through Mexico; Central America; South America through southern Argentina and southern Chile qualify as original Western Hemisphere homelands for mountain lions. Agro-industry, logging, mining, ranching, trophy hunting and urbanization reduce mountain lion distribution ranges to Florida, Texas and west of the Rocky Mountains in the United States. Only starving mothers, orphans and singles among otherwise shy, solitary mountain lions strike, sometimes, sick, weak slaughterhouse-destined livestock and, solely in self-defense, strange-smelling, strange-sounding, strange-strategizing humans.

Mountain lions within the United States' largest county, San Bernardino in southeastern California, total one less because of terminal trapping, not tranquilized transport, of starving wildlife.

northward view in Yucca Valley at intersection of Highway 62 and Highway 247, about three miles southwest of 5900 block of Avalon Avenue, where a hungry mountain lion was killed Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018; Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 17:55: Glenn Francis (Toglenn), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Morongo Basin Sheriff's Station @MorongoBasinSheriffsStation, via Facebook Dec. 11, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/MorongoBasinSheriffsStation/photos/a.900204886698375/2157309237654594/

northward view in Yucca Valley at intersection of Highway 62 and Highway 247, about three miles southwest of 5900 block of Avalon Avenue, where a hungry mountain lion was killed Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018; Tuesday, June 27, 2017, 17:55: Glenn Francis (Toglenn), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yucca_Valley_Hwy_247.jpg

For further information:

Burkhart, Sergeant Jennifer; and John McMahon. 11 December 2018. "Wild Animal Attack." San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department > San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Press Release > Yucca Valley > Press Releases for 2018 > December.
Available @ http://wp.sbcounty.gov/sheriff/yucca-valley/yucca-valley-mountain-lion-attack/

Morongo Basin ‏ @morongobasinstn. 11 December 2018. "Mountain lion escapes from a chicken coop; residents are urged to contact law enforcement in the event of any future sighting https://local.nixle.com/alert/6984552/." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/morongobasinstn/status/1072519824054595585

Morongo Basin Sheriff's Station @MorongoBasinSheriffsStation. 11 December 2018. "Mountain lion escapes from a chicken coop; residents are urged to contact law enforcement in the event of any future sighting. . . ." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MorongoBasinSheriffsStation/photos/a.900204886698375/2157309237654594/

"Mountain Lion Escapes After Being Found Trapped in Chicken Coop." CBS Los Angeles  > December 11, 2018.
Available @ https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/12/11/mountain-lion-stuck-chicken-coop/

"State Orders Deputy to Shoot and Kill a Mountain Lion in Yucca Valley." Z107.7 News > December 13th, 2018.
Available @ http://z1077fm.com/deputies-kill-mountain-lion-tuesday-night-in-yucca-valley/

The Sun Runner - The Journal of the Real Desert @TheSunRunner. 11 December 2018. "If you're in Yucca Valley and you think you see a mountain lion stroll by, chances are -- you did!" Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/TheSunRunner/posts/10155946334761966

Williams, Jim; with Joe Glickman; and foreword by Douglas Chadwick. 2018. Path of the Puma: The Remarkable Resilience of the Mountain Lion. Ventura CA: Patagonia Books.