‘Cougar country’: L.A. neighborhood gears up after recent mountain lion attack

A young, possibly weaning mountain lion roaming the neighborhood of Sylmar is causing residents to wonder whether the feline could target a human.

On the night of Aug. 10, Yasmin Lopez’s father was walking their pit bull, Gigi, in Oakridge Mobile Home Park when the cougar pounced on the dog. Unable to fight it off, he ran to call for help. Coming upon the attack, a nearby neighbor honked their car horn, scaring the cougar away. Gigi is believed to have died instantly, according to a Facebook post.

“Gigi was a happy girl with my family in the six weeks we had her,” Lopez wrote in a Facebook post. “She really brightened up my days and was a joy to be around.”

On Thursday evening, the Sylmar Neighborhood Council addressed residents’ fears about the danger posed by a mountain lion aggressive enough to attack a dog leashed to its owner.

Council President Kurt Cabrera-Miller said that officials had confirmed two sightings in Veterans Memorial Community Regional Park in the previous two days, but he downplayed the threat to humans.

“This cougar is either looking for food or for a way out,” Cabrera-Miller said. “But it’s not more inclined to attack people.”

Korinna Domingo, director of the Cougar Conservancy, told the three dozen or so attendees at Discovery Charter Preparatory School that cougars don’t typically attack humans — but do prey on domestic pets, rodents and coyotes.

“It is never zero risk when living in cougar country, and much of Sylmar is cougar country,” said Domingo, who conducts field research on mountain lions. “We can take steps to minimize the likelihood of having those negative interactions.”

Pet safety was a major concern at the meeting. Cabrera-Miller, who owns a Great Dane named Scooby, says his dog would lunge at the large cat if given the chance to.

“My dog jumps at the TV when he sees horses,” he said. “He would think a cougar is just another dog.”

Domingo said residents can assemble an enclosure, the components of which can be purchased at any major home-improvement store, to protect pets from the wildlife. Cougars — capable of jumping 15 feet high — can easily scale typical walls and fences.

However, one council member mentioned that Oakridge Mobile Home Park does not allow metal enclosures. Domingo says there are other ways to stay protected, such as walking during the day or using a flashlight during night walks, using a standard leash size of 6 feet or less in length, walking in groups of two people or more and clapping or making loud noises with an air horn to scare off the cat.

“Be aware of your surroundings, avoid listening to your favorite podcast or the latest album in your headphones,” she said. “As an avid recreationist and a wildlife biologist that does fieldwork, I often hear wildlife before I see them, so this is a really important point.”

Owners of pets or livestock that are threatened or killed by cougars can get a depredation permit to destroy the predator. Domingo said about 100 cougars are killed each year in California after incidents with pets.

City officials say they have not determined whether there are multiple mountain lions in Sylmar. The animals are extremely territorial, according to Domingo.

Males do not usually overlap with other males, but one could coexist with up to three females.

“Depending on where your houses are within their territories and where they overlap, you can have anywhere between two cougars to three or more cougars in your area,” Domingo said. “And so that’s why we just really emphasize, you know, the prevention at the beginning, because it’s likely that there is more than one roaming Oakridge.”

Robert van de Hoek, a retired wildlife biologist, says the feline could be a juvenile male lion recently weaned from its mother and pushed away by older males that hunt deer in the hills.

“Adult males are very territorial, even towards their sons,” said Van de Hoek, who grew up in Sylmar and has been conducting deer observations in the area for about 15 years.

Their main food source is the big deer population in the hills around Sylmar houses, he said.

“There are deers behind the El Cariso Park and the L.A. Mission College, Lopez Dam and near another county dam higher up on the Pacoima River wash,” he said. “And so, mature male lions are going to hold on to that deer population. The younger males are forced to eat and prey on smaller mammals.”

Determining the identity of the lion, or multiple lions, could take a while. Tagging and collaring is an underfunded process, said Domingo.

“The California Department of Fish and Wildlife generally doesn’t have collars for every animal at any given time,” Domingo said. “They are operating under extremely limited resources with collars or ear tags that are placed on wildlife like cougars.”

Fish and Wildlife Information Officer Tim Daly says the agency tried to contact Gigi’s owner. It “made attempts to reach the pet owner in this situation, but we weren’t able to connect,” he said via email. “In general, when pets are taken by wildlife, and they’re on a leash — we attempt to reach the pet owner by phone or email to offer safety information to hopefully prevent another similar incident. When a pet is unsupervised (not being walked or on a leash), that behavior by wildlife is considered expected behavior.”

If the lion becomes aggressive, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will have to step in, said Officer Vanessa Rodriguez of Los Angeles Animal Services. In a non-emergency situation, the city can kill an animal only if it is injured or sick.

Rodriguez says the agency will continue to monitor the area, scoping for lion dens and offering property inspections to determine what elements could be attracting wildlife.

“Our hearts go out to the family for their loss. This is a very unfortunate incident, and surely can be very traumatic for anybody who’s involved,” Rodriguez said.