Cat Fight
January 24, 2008 by richfletch
The racket emanating from the quarter-mile away brush patch was drawing attention from flocks of crowing crows joining in the ruckus like a Las Vegas crowd at an Ali -Fraser boxing match, but the seats were free. Screaming and growling two big cats were having it out.
I stood by the ranch gate, a witness to something I’d heard before, but not at this magnitude. Two mountain lions were fighting like giant back-yard tomcats, but with more volume and power. They also have reasons to do more than just growl. Imagine your back yard catfight with the sounds moderated to the roar of a lion. And, as with your pet, these cats can go at it so viciously that it makes you feel like your hair is standing on end – and maybe it is.
This battle I’m speaking of took place at 9:00 AM on a sunny Saturday in May, almost two years ago. We were on our way to picnic, fish and shoot varmints at our ranch. I was driving my truck at the rear of a five or six truck caravan. The other vehicles had passed without noticing the battle.
As had been the case with my previous mountain lion screaming-roaring experiences, I never saw the cats, but there was no doubt about what it was.
I have watched bobcats having this type of encounter. While deer hunting a few years ago not very far from where the big cats fought, I observed a pair of bobcats approach each other cautiously about 50 yards away. They stalked towards each other slowly until they were face to face only a few inches apart. With backs hunched and back hair vertical, they began to growl, wine and moan making sounds similar to the big cats, but at a much higher pitch. The sound of cats fighting is unnerving.
Most people never hear or see a mountain lion, but these big cats live in our East Bay oak woodland, oak grassland and chaparral habitat in healthy numbers. We place trail cameras on our ranch to monitor wildlife activity and mountain lions are photographed regularly.
As long as we have healthy Columbia black-tailed deer populations, we’ll also have healthy mountain lion populations. Unfortunately for the cats, deer habitat is dwindling and the fate of the lions is tied to the deer. It seems ironical to me that our wildlife agencies have shifted much of their wildlife management efforts to protect endangered species without assurance that our large predators are included in the safety net.
More and more endangered species mitigation is taking place in and around urban areas where the habitat is fragmented and impacted by human activities. Too many agendas are being created and pursued in the wildlife arena and they conflict.
Habitat is much more effective for protecting wildlife, endangered or not, if it is maintained in large chunks with diverse qualities. It’s time to see the forest.
