By Jim Stanford on October 8, 2007
I was saddened last week to hear that the mountain lion from last winter’s magical sighting was dead — as a result of its proximity to humans.
The lion, known to researchers as F30 but to me as “Simba,” starved to death after being moved from the Cache Creek area in early September.
Apparently, the creature had lingered close to town after leaving Miller Butte in the National Elk Refuge in February. The hills around the refuge have abundant prey.
But the cat unwittingly triggered its own death in late August by peering into a window of a home in east Jackson, whose owners happen to be politically well connected. The sighting prompted Wyoming Game and Fish to relocate the cat and caused a mild bout of hysteria among a group of residents calling themselves “Concerned Mothers and Grandmothers of Jackson.”
Turns out the letter the group sent to the Game and Fish director — complaining that residents were not informed they were living in lion habitat and calling for more lions to be killed — was littered with inaccuracies.
We continue to do a miserable job of living with predators. The death toll for bears in Jackson Hole this summer stands at 16 — four killed in Grand Teton National Park, and 12 outside the park.
This tally only represents the bruins put down by wildlife managers because of conflicts with humans, and does not include roadkill or bears shot by hunters.
Seeing the mountain lion on a frigid, wind-swept day last February brought me joy. Too bad that for many others, the sight of such a magnificent creature inspires fear.
Posted under bears, mountain lions, wildlife
