The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Officials encourage people to go out with pets, avoid feeding wildlife
by Katherine Nettles
There have been at least three incidents this winter in the north valley in which mountain lions have come onto people’s property, and at least twice they have made an attack on a family dog. Multiple people have also reported mountain lion sightings within the Crested Butte South subdivision in the past several days.
Despite what appears to be an increase in domestic encounters, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials say there is no indication of a growing mountain lion population or unusual circumstances for the lions that live in Gunnison County, but advise that people need to be aware of co-existing with the large predators.
Following a sad event near Almont on January 3 in which an undernourished female mountain lion attacked a Labrador retriever on a leash in a dog run outside the dog’s home, a second attack happened toward the end of January up Ohio Creek Valley. According to CPW public information officer Joe Lewandowski, “People were in their house, and had a Great Pyrenees dog that was outside. They heard commotion on the porch, and ran out to see the mountain lion with their dog. So one of them shot and killed the lion,” he said, noting the dog had minor injuries but was “winning the fight”. Like the first mountain lion, the necropsy report showed that this one, a male, was “hungry, skinny and its stomach was empty,” but it was not otherwise sick or injured.
“That is not great lion habitat up there this time of year, with all the snow that tends to keep big game down lower,” said Lewandowski. “It’s unusual that this would happen, but there are lions in the Gunnison Basin and all over Colorado. Sometimes they end in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
On January 31 and again on February 3, two separate reports came in from Crested Butte South that residents had seen a mountain lion in their backyard. Lewandowski said this is not at all unusual, although it is unsettling for residents. “It’s right next to a wild, natural area there,” he pointed out, so it is not unusual that a lion would travel through there. The animals are nocturnal and therefore most active from dusk to dawn, so although they may prowl the area regularly, people do not generally see them.
The Crested Butte South Property Owners Association issued an alert on the POA website after the first report. “The POA has been notified of the presence of a mountain lion in the vicinity of Janet Place. Calls from the lion were heard during the night. Please be aware, especially at dusk and dawn. We want to keep everyone including our pets safe.”
Association manager Dom Eymere said although he did not hear of the second report, he confirmed that “The alert up on Janet Place was just noise and prowling around at night,” and he agreed that such sightings are normal in the area.
“Mountain lion sightings are well reported, and this time of year we seem to get more of them,” he said.
CPW advises that people be more cautious during the winter months, when lions are chasing prey that take refuge at lower elevations. “During the winter, deer and elk come down to lower elevations, so mountain lions can be at lower elevations too. People just toss their dog out in the backyard sometimes, but it’s a good idea to go out there with your dog, or cat or whatever pet you have. Because if there’s a lion out there hunting deer, but something else catches its eye, it might very well change course,” said Lewandowski.
He also advised that people should avoid putting out any food that could feed wildlife, “not even bird seed that can be accessed from the ground. Some people put corn out for deer, and it’s the worst thing you can do for a deer. It’s not legal and it’s dangerous for the deer and for people around them too,” he said.
“There are lions in the Gunnison Basin. There always have been. Deer is their favorite prey. I’ve never heard about two dogs being attacked, but we don’t always hear about all of them either,” Lewandowski said. “It’s no indication that we’ve got gobs of lions running around, though. It’s a stable population, and they self-regulate pretty well. They have big territories, and they are a low-density species.”
Lewandowski explained a main reason lions do not share their vast acres of territory. “It’s a big expenditure for a lion to take down a big game animal,” he said, and often their prey will fight back and can result in injuries that would make the lions susceptible to other lions. So they don’t tolerate each other well. As for how many lions there are in the area, CPW does not have an exact count. CPW has estimated about 750,000 deer in the state and between 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions stretching west from Interstate 25.
The agency is holding a public comment session about its mountain lion hunting practices and quotas, including a meeting in Gunnison on February 10. CPW estimates there are about 1,200 to 1,500 mountain lion hunters in the state as opposed to 300,000 deer and elk hunters. “So it’s a small population, too,” he said.
