October 22, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Lion sighted on roof raises concerns

by Bill D'Agostino

For the second time in less than six months, a mountain lion was spotted in the heart of Palo Alto, far from any natural habitat.

After midnight on Tuesday morning, a Palo Alto teen saw the wild animal on a neighbor's shingled roof on North California Avenue. Her parents also saw the cougar and called authorities at 12:45 a.m. Police patrolled the area at night but found no sign of the animal.

About nine hours later, after daylight broke, city officials found a series of paw prints in muddy backyards. A Santa Clara County vector control official verified them a few hours later. Soon after, the police began alerting neighbors and school administrators through fliers and e-mails.

One flyer posted on a telephone poll noted, "The cat acted in a normal, non-threatening manner."

"It didn't approach anybody," City Naturalist Deborah Bartens explained. "It just moved away, which is always a good thing."

Two other residents reported sightings of mountain lions on Wednesday night, including one near the corner of Embarcadero Road and Louis Road. Police examined both, but Bartens cautioned that they were unconfirmed.

"We just don't know," she said.

There have been an increasing number of sightings of cougars in the region. Bartens, who have been tracking them for a variety of agencies, defended the city's decision to wait until the afternoon, when the county official verified the prints, to alert residents.

"If we publicized every call that we get we'd be putting out reports every day," she said. Warnings from residents often turn out to be bobcats or German Shepherds, she noted.

The city needs to be careful not to "jump the gun" and say, "'Oh, it's a lion,'" Bartens argued, because "then somebody's more experienced (could) say, 'For goodness sake that's an aardvark.'"

It was the most high profile sighting in lion-crazy Palo Alto in five months.

In May, a police officer shot and killed a mountain lion that wandered into a residential neighborhood. Residents criticized the city after that incident for failing to immediately notify neighbors of the danger, and Police Chief Lynne Johnson quickly apologized. The city also got condemned a few weeks later when it telephoned neighbors to report a sighting that turned out to be a bobcat.

"We get hammered from both sides, believe me," Bartens said. "People say, 'How dare you make us nervous,' and we have other people telling us, 'Thank you so much for letting us know.' It seems like no matter what we do it's not quite what everybody would like."

The San Francisquito Creek -- this week's likely entry point for the cougar -- was around two miles away. Bartens and others hypothesized the season's first rainstorm might have pushed the animal from the creek into the neighborhood.

From crossing guards to schoolchildren, the cougar was the talk of the neighborhood around North California Avenue.

"A little scary," remarked Tom Lynch, who was wearing a motorcycle T-shirt while supervising a crew of men cutting down a nearby home's tall cedar tree.

The sighting was two blocks away from Jordan Middle School. Crossing guard Mereile Strauss was warning students about the mountain lion as they walked down the street.

"Kids are curious," she cautioned. "They might see one and want to talk to it or want to see it up close."

As Jared Swezey-Gleason, a 10-year-old Ohlone student, walked down the street he showed little interest or awareness in his surroundings. He was not rattled by the news that a mountain lion was sighted less a block away.

"It was interesting in that we're in their habitat and they came down and were not scared of cars," he said.

The sighting triggered numerous e-mails from police officials, school administrators and neighborhood leaders.

"We found evidence of raccoons and other wildlife burrowing in the yards which is what the lion is probably after," Chief Johnson wrote to neighborhood leaders, who passed along the message to their listservs.

"We will exercise extra caution during brunch, lunch and P.E. periods," noted Scott Laurence, principal of Palo Alto High School, in an e-mail to the Parent-Teacher-Student Association mailing list. "We suggest that families have their students walk or ride their bicycles in groups to and from school, and follow basic precautionary behaviors."

It was the second confirmed sighting of a lion in Palo Alto in a week. On Oct. 12, a lion was spotted around 8 p.m. behind Stoa's Restaurant near Highway 101. Police searched the area and found tracks and eviscerated ducks in the nearby Adobe Creek. Officers posted fliers to alert neighbors.

Lions have also been sighted in Palo Alto this year in Barron Park Neighborhood and behind the Stanford West apartments, where a cougar stalked a woman walking her dog in August. The majority of the sightings have been in open space preserves, which are the animal's natural habitat. Anyone confronting a mountain lion is warned to wave their arms to look as large as possible, make loud noises and back away slowly from the lion. If one is attacked, authorities advocate fighting back.

City officials also recommend keeping pets and pet food inside, especially at night, to reduce incidents of mountain lions appearing in residential neighborhoods.

Senior Staff Writer Don Kazak contributed to this report.
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.

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