In a review on hunting policies written 10 years ago, I noted that California banned mountain lion hunting through a voter initiative in 1990.
As described in a book that tackles this topic (“The Beast in the Garden”), these big cats gradually became habituated to humans. Now, over 30 years after the California ballot measure passed, there are real-world consequences… as these animals are not simply giant-sized kittens.
A mountain lion has forced residents of Santa Monica and their tiny pets indoors as officials try to track the wild cat.
The Santa Monica Police Department descended on the residential area of 14th and Montana Friday morning after someone allegedly saw the animal roaming the area.“Out of an abundance of caution, officers are in the area assessing the report and working with appropriate wildlife resources. At this time, there are no reported injuries,” a tweet from the department said.The mountain lion was first located sleeping in a residential backyard, and has not moved from that location, a SMPD spokesperson told The California Post. Officers are waiting on further assistance from wildlife fish and game officers.
Mountain lions are also being described as an “imminent threat to public safety” in a rural Northern California community, as locals report increasing sightings of the animals near residences.
According to a May 15 Facebook release from the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff John McGarva issued an official declaration “stating the lions are an imminent threat to public safety” on May 13. The declaration follows numerous reports about increasingly bold mountain lion activity in the Gold Run area near Amesbury Drive and Hill Creek Road.The sheriff’s office stated residents first began reporting concerns in the summer of 2025, describing encounters in which mountain lions lingered near homes, wandered beneath decks, and became increasingly difficult to scare away.Most recently, on May 11, residents sent deputies five separate videos allegedly showing as many as five mountain lions crossing through private property near homes, according to the release. Authorities said the animals appeared “comfortable with human presence and are unconcerned about human presence or animals as a deterrent.””The lions are moving freely and without concern for human intervention,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the statement, adding that traditional deterrents such as yelling, loud noises, chasing, and fencing “have been ineffective for several months.”
The realities of this “new normal” are sharpening a long-simmering debate between those dealing with the consequences of living closely with these predators and eco-activists who generally prefer the felines over their fellow humans.
Wildlife experts recommend bringing pets indoors at night, supervising small animals outside, securing livestock, trimming vegetation near homes, and removing attractants that can draw prey species — and, in turn, predators — closer to neighborhoods.Better land-use planning and habitat connectivity could reduce the likelihood of these encounters by providing mountain lions with safe routes away from homes.Many dangerous situations can be prevented if residents know how to respond calmly and avoid escalating an encounter.
Those now struggling with the consequences of the 1990 vote and the lack of robust protections from the state wildlife agency are growing angrier and less accepting of the puma-centered solutions being proposed.
“A mountain lion that is constantly on my parents’ deck, feet away from the sliding glass door, my parents are in their eighties, yes, I’m scared every freaking day,” Dreu Murin, whose family has lived on a ranch in Susanville since 1900, told The Times.He accused the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the agency responsible for managing the predators, of failing to do its job….The increasingly contentious debate encapsulates the tension between urban and rural communities in California, with Murin arguing city-dwellers have no idea what life is like for farmers.“If they think it’s so easy to live around them, let’s relocate some lions to parks in Los Angeles and San Francisco,” he said. “Let them be around them and see how unpredictable these animals are. Because I guarantee if their cat or their son got killed, they’d change their tune.”
The mountain lion now touring Santa Monica while police stand watch and residents huddle indoors with their Chihuahua is the unintended consequence of California’s 1990 ballot measure coming to roost.
Voters were promised harmony with nature; they are getting nature on nature’s terms.
From the rural ranches of Lassen County, where five lions prowl through private property without a care, to the manicured streets of Santa Monica’s 14th and Montana, the message from California’s mountain lions could not be clearer: the habitat expansion is going swimmingly… for them.
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