Speaking as someone who lived in Colorado Springs for twelve years, a mountain lion in town is only there for one of two reasons: either it's young and just learning to hunt, or it has gotten too old and diseased to be fast enough to catch game out in the country.
Old lions are wary of people, but they'll eat pets. Young lions--like the one caught on the Ring cam--are still figuring out how to kill enough small game to keep themselves fed, and cities look tempting until they have a few close calls and realize that they really prefer the taste of deer anyway. But they can be scared off by bear dogs and livestock guardian dogs, and even by geese.
We lived side-by-side with mountain lions (and we knew they were in the general neighborhood) the entire time we lived in the Springs. (we had this huge neighborhood fox that we saw, and we even had a bear visit us too--so we had more to wonder about/worry about than just the lions)
It's a very different way to live. Parents would look out their windows and CHECK their backyards to make sure there weren't any large cats sunning themselves before letting kids go out to play. Especially if they were younger kids. Pet owners took extra precautions too. And hunters were empowered (after a call to Colorado's Game and Wildlife officers) to put a bullet through the skull of any lion they saw stalking kids playing on ball fields or in back yards.
Policemen may be trained to shoot, but--policemen have other duties and higher priorities, and can't always come running in time to catch a lion. And even when they aren't exactly in a hurry, lions can still move pretty quickly.
Like I said, it's a different way to live. But short of putting out bounties on all the lions now in the state, I just don't see that we have any choice but to retrain the residents of Lincoln and Omaha. Lions have territories that extend for 40+ square miles, and frequently overlap. They go where the deer go. If you have deer coming into your yard, you have lions following them.
And they're smarter and sneakier than you, and the only way you're going to see them (most of the time) is on critter cams and Ring.
You are correct. There should be an Officer that has training and a high Caliber rifle meant to take out a Mountain lion or even a bear in one shot. Additionally, also have training in tracking and setting traps so the animal can be tranquilized if possible and relocated to a wildlife sanctuary.
I don't think traps would be appropriate as they could end up catching local fauna (dogs, cats, raccoons). The handguns, shotguns, and AR's that OPD carries are not legal for big game in this state,
although I really don't know where mountain lions come up in our hunting laws though. Shotguns would only be legal with the right kind of ammunition. This is for deer for an example:
Speaking as someone who lived in Colorado Springs for twelve years, a mountain lion in town is only there for one of two reasons: either it's young and just learning to hunt, or it has gotten too old and diseased to be fast enough to catch game out in the country.
Old lions are wary of people, but they'll eat pets. Young lions--like the one caught on the Ring cam--are still figuring out how to kill enough small game to keep themselves fed, and cities look tempting until they have a few close calls and realize that they really prefer the taste of deer anyway. But they can be scared off by bear dogs and livestock guardian dogs, and even by geese.
We lived side-by-side with mountain lions (and we knew they were in the general neighborhood) the entire time we lived in the Springs. (we had this huge neighborhood fox that we saw, and we even had a bear visit us too--so we had more to wonder about/worry about than just the lions)
It's a very different way to live. Parents would look out their windows and CHECK their backyards to make sure there weren't any large cats sunning themselves before letting kids go out to play. Especially if they were younger kids. Pet owners took extra precautions too. And hunters were empowered (after a call to Colorado's Game and Wildlife officers) to put a bullet through the skull of any lion they saw stalking kids playing on ball fields or in back yards.
Policemen may be trained to shoot, but--policemen have other duties and higher priorities, and can't always come running in time to catch a lion. And even when they aren't exactly in a hurry, lions can still move pretty quickly.
Like I said, it's a different way to live. But short of putting out bounties on all the lions now in the state, I just don't see that we have any choice but to retrain the residents of Lincoln and Omaha. Lions have territories that extend for 40+ square miles, and frequently overlap. They go where the deer go. If you have deer coming into your yard, you have lions following them.
And they're smarter and sneakier than you, and the only way you're going to see them (most of the time) is on critter cams and Ring.
Thank you
You are correct. There should be an Officer that has training and a high Caliber rifle meant to take out a Mountain lion or even a bear in one shot. Additionally, also have training in tracking and setting traps so the animal can be tranquilized if possible and relocated to a wildlife sanctuary.
I don't think traps would be appropriate as they could end up catching local fauna (dogs, cats, raccoons). The handguns, shotguns, and AR's that OPD carries are not legal for big game in this state,
although I really don't know where mountain lions come up in our hunting laws though. Shotguns would only be legal with the right kind of ammunition. This is for deer for an example:
https://www.outdoornebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-deer-regs.pdf
It would depend on how such trap is set. See https://wildlife-damage-management.extension.org/mountain-lion-damage-management/#Leg_Snares
Does OPD not have ARs? Surely officers hunt. I know Todd and his family used to. We hunted together several times as kids