Followers

Monday, March 12, 2018

MOUNTAIN LION LADY: Chapter 1

Instead of animal words for this post, I am going to introduce the first chapter of a book I'm writing: Mountain Lion Lady. I hope you like it! Let me know if you would like to read another chapter!
A What?

"Alineclaudbeinbybouff!" I mumbled painfully through a wad of blood-soaked cotton.

"I beg your pardon!" said the nurse, drawing back and blinking as if I'd said something in poor taste. A nurse in a college infirmary probably sees quite a few weirdos.

I removed the cotton and tried not to let my tongue touch the gaping hole at the base of my gum.

"I said, 'A lion clawed me in my mouth.'" I held out the now-red piece of cotton as proof that the injury wasn't my imagination or an hallucination.

"Dear me," she muttered and scuttled off.

A moment later a white-jacketed doctor came into the room. With an avuncular smile he said condescendingly, "Now, what seems to be the problem young lady?"

I took out the cotton once again and patiently repeated, "A lion clawed me in my mouth. A mountain lion." I looked at him expectantly.

With a sigh he asked me to open my sore mouth. I obligingly held my lip away from the gum so he could examine the extent of the damage.

I was a graduate student in wildlife biology at the time. During the course of my studies on the mountain lion I had acquired three of the baby felids from a zoo in Missouri to document changes in their blood and body as they aged. More facts were needed to better manage Puma concolor.

Mountain lions are also called pumas and cougars in the west and catamounts and panthers in the east (the black color phase of leopards is also called a panther, so the term is a bit ambiguous). They once roamed throughout most of North, Central and South America. Humans are often uneasy co-existing with such capable predators and worry about danger to their pets, livestock and themselves, even though more people are killed by bees or even dogs. Mountain lions were bountied in many areas and were killed off in large numbers as civilization spread on the American continents. Another real blow to the mountain lions' survival was happening simultaneously: deer and other large game were being wiped out by market hunters.

Sport hunters are willing to pay for management of deer herds through their license fees so their numbers have built back up in many areas. In some areas mountain lions have followed suit. Since they are considered a big game animal in many states they are afforded some measure of protection.

Are mountain lions a threat to livestock? Sometimes. Let me explain. You probably like food you have grown up with whether it's hamburger or lamb chops or corn bread. Mountain lions favor what mama brought them up on too. In most cases in the U.S. they like deer and elk in the winter and rabbits and other small game in the summer. But like their small cousins they are curious. We followed and tagged a lion that had a favorite resting spot that overlooked a ranch in a valley with a large herd of cattle. When I asked the rancher if he had ever had a problem with lions, he answered "Never!" Perhaps the lion was entertained by the cows like watching a foodie show on television.

Unfortunately sometimes a lion gets a taste for goats or sheep or other livestock. In some cases it is because the lion is disabled. A lion was killed in Utah that had been killing sheep. When they examined it, all of it's canines were broken off so it had to gum the sheep to death. A woolly sheep is easier to hang on to! In another case that was literally very true: the hair was worn off the inside of the lion's front legs. Upon inspection it was discovered that lion had arthritis in its front paws and couldn't use its claws to bring its prey down. Sometimes the number of deer in the area have decreased so a lion will turn to a prey animal that is more available - livestock. In some cases the lion is young and not a very effective hunter, particularly if its mother was killed before it was fully trained in the art of hunting. These problem lions need to be removed from the population because they will probably continue killing livestock or pets once they have gotten a taste for them. If the problem lion is a female she will teach her offspring to enjoy that illicit dinner too.

Mountain lions are superb creatures built for precision. They look like female African lions but are quite a bit smaller. Female African lions generally weigh from 300 to 350 pounds while male mountain lions average between 120 and 150 pounds. A female mountain lion is usually about two-thirds the size of a male mountain lion. The mountain lion is also longer in proportion than the
African lion with a smaller head and thicker, longer tail. A streamlined body is necessary for running up small cracks in cliffs (I'll tell you a story about that in another chapter) and similar activities that require balance.


A mountain lion can easily jump 20 feet on the level and leaps of up to 40 feet and more have been measured. A healthy mountain lion can kill an animal up to ten times its own weight (think male moose), but in the North American winter it usually sticks to deer (two or three times larger) or elk (five or six times larger). In the summer it switches mostly to rabbits and smaller game. Porcupines seem to be a favorite dish of some lions. I found a porcupine skin once that demonstrated how it was killed. The lion slipped its sharp claws under the belly and opened it up neatly. The skin was stripped from the carcass and the rest of the animal was eaten. Sometimes the porcupine wins though. A dead lion was found on our study area with porcupine quills that had worked their way into the internal organs and killed it.

One would think that such a capable and ingenious animal would try the taste of human flesh now and again. Leopards are about the same size as mountain lions and they kill a hundred or so people each year. Mountain lions don't. Fewer than fifty people have been killed since the 1800's. Two of those people didn't die from wounds inflicted by the lion but from rabies. In 1909 a Sunday school class was having a picnic in northern California. Two little boys were playing down by the river when a lion lurched out of the bushes and started mauling one of them. The other ran to his Sunday school teacher and she, armed with only her hatpin, courageously drove the lion off, but not before she, too, had been bitten. They both recovered from their injuries but later succumbed to rabies (rabies has a long incubation period).

Mountain lions use their ingenuity in more profitable ways to ensure their survival. They have the fabled curiosity of their tribe and will sometimes follow a hiker or rancher but will disappear when discovered rather than attack. Never assume it is gone though, if you happen to be the person followed! The lion might just have crept to a better hiding place to watch you! Don't run (a predator's instinct is to chase something that runs from it!), open your jacket to look large, talk in a low loud voice and head back to your car, watching alertly for any sign of the animal. Make it think you are too tough to tackle!

Mountain lions share other traits with house cats. The most endearing one is its tremendous purr! Lions, tigers, jaguars and even leopards can roar due to a modification in their voice box, but mountain lions can't. Only the mountain lion of the big cats can purr continuously both breathing out and breathing in like house cats! I chose this purring king of beasts for my research and was fortunate enough to be given the chance to raise three little ones from the time they were three weeks old until they were almost seven years old.


On that fateful morning of my visit to the infirmary I had fed the three young lions as usual. They were housed in a modified chicken coop. The outside cage was chain-link dug in three feet under ground with a six-foot high board fence around it. At the time the kittens were only six months old and weighed about 50 pounds each. Even though an 18-inch high bench had been installed for them to climb on, they still couldn't see over the board fence. It was the high point of their day to snatch a peek at the outside world.

I stood on the bench to watch the man at the hay barn 100 yards away load hay onto a truck. Mitzli joined me on the bench, looked at me expectantly and said "Mrrrf?" Translated that meant. "May I have a look?"

I obligingly stepped one foot down, picked him up and let him stand on my knee. He checked the scene out, darting his little head this way and that. Such goings on were too much for his brother. Schunta came galloping up intending to jump on Mitzli. Unfortunately just as he became airborne I turned to him to say, "No Schunta!" and caught his outstretched claw inside my mouth.

I dropped the startled Mitzli and felt gingerly with my tongue for the hole that I was certain must have gone clear through my cheek. It felt bottomless but it didn't reach to the outside.

I left the cage, stuffed my mouth with cotton and finished sweeping out the inside cage. There were tears in my eyes but I illogically wanted to finish cleaning the cage. All three kittens were puzzled about the way I was acting and crowded around me when I let them back indoors. I went through the usual morning good-bye ritual. Schunta in particular acted worried. He probably didn't understand that he had hurt me but he knew that he had done something to upset me. He didn't realize I wasn't as sturdy as his brothers. He decided upon the I'll-kiss-it-and-make-it-better approach and rubbed against my leg solicitously to the accompaniment of warm purrs. I gave them each a final hug, locked the doors and headed for the college infirmary in my battered green truck.

I rehearsed what I was going to say to the nurse and decided to express the situation succinctly. They see so many patients I reasoned, that they don't want to hear any long, drawn-out explanations. Besides, it hurt to talk.

After gazing for a while at my mouth, the doctor announced, "Hmmm. I see," and raised a questioning eyebrow. Briefly, using my hands as much as possible and trying not to move my now-aching jaw, I explained, then asked if I would have to have stitches.

"That won't be necessary. The mouth heals very quickly, but it is also very dirty. You will have to rinse your mouth with a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide every couple of hours for a few days."

He gave me some to try. It was awful! I don't think there would be any bleached blonds if they had to drink the stuff instead of apply it to their hair!

I accepted the hydrogen peroxide bottle with resignation but decided a nasty even nauseous taste and a cut in my mouth were not too steep a price to pay for being allowed to share in the kittens' lives. I had shared my love and life with a lot of animals and was willing to put up with quite a bit for any one of them. Life without animals was unimaginable for me!

No comments:

Post a Comment