666 CAN THE WILD AND THE TAME GET ALONG

[michaelo]

There are lions in the neighborhood. My daughter saw one across the street in the playground of the elementary school. Their comings and goings are documented in numerous editions of our daily newspaper.

Lions are moving into the neighborhood, and neighborhoods are moving into the lions.

At one time in our history, this mingling of the wildest of the wild with the tamest of the tame would not have been tolerated. The wild would have been eliminated.

Times have changed. For one reason or another, the tame have come to appreciate having the wild in their world, and thus we have grizzly bears, wolves and mountain lions wandering about the fringes of civilization.

But as lions move in, and civilization moves out, wild and tame will meet, which leads us to ask…

Can the wild and the tame just get along?

[Inyo]

The actual threat posed to the public by mountain lions is VERY small, you are far more likely to be killed by domestic dogs, bees, or while driving, walking, or biking to work. I would guess most people are much more likely to be injured or killed by car - deer collisions than by mountain lions, and of course, without mountain lions there are just that many more deer, especially in places where people can't or won't hunt deer.

That doesn't mean you should let your children run around alone at dusk in mountain lion habitat. There is no substitute for common sense and awareness of your surroundings! The discussion IS worth happening, but I think it needs to be framed in a way that doesn't sensationalize the danger of mountain lions (this is less a reference to your post than to the media in general).