John and Pat Dorrell rose early Christmas morning to see the sun
rise, but they saw more than they bargained for.
John and Pat Dorrell rose early Christmas morning to see the sun rise, but they saw more than they bargained for.
As they strolled down a dirt path behind Christmas Hill Park near Ascencion Solorsano Middle School, the couple encountered a mountain lion they estimated weighing roughly 100 pounds. Then it happened again about 5:15 a.m. Wednesday, but this time closer to Third Street and Santa Teresa Boulevard, near Eagle Ridge, they said.
“I did not see much of anything, just the eyes of it,” John said of Wednesday’s sighting courtesy of the flashlights he and Pat carried. When they were up in the hills Christmas morning, however, the sun was up too, and they both said that the calm mountain lion definitely saw them before it ran away through the woods.
Pat moved here from Massachusetts, so she said she is still getting used to mountain lions, but John grew up in Nevada and said he also saw a mountain lion last year. Either way, the couple said they felt more comfortable walking with Dakota and Casey, their Rhodesian ridgeback and Weimaraner, respectively.
“I don’t really want to mess with (the mountain lion),” said John, a smog technician in San Jose who said he and his wife enjoy spending their mornings outside together and were concerned about the safety of school children who will return to class Jan. 7. The couple stood their ground Tuesday morning, which animal experts recommend rather than running or playing dead. As nocturnal hunters, mountain lions are naturally active during dawn, dusk and in between.
On top of this, the Lick Fire’s destruction of about 50,000 of Henry Coe State Park’s 87,000 acres in September along with the continual expansion of Gilroy have made it more likely for people to encounter mountain lions, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Game. The department picked up a mountain lion cub a couple months ago in Gilroy, but it has not heard or seen anything unusual this winter, according to Supervising Information Officer Steve Martarano.
Barbara Drewitz lives nearby Christmas Hill Park and grew up in Gilroy, but she said she was still surprised to hear about the Dorrells’ sightings.
“I know they’re up in the hills, but I don’t really think about them much … They are scary,” Drewitz said Wednesday at the park as her son-in-law and grandchildren played on the swings.
There have been 16 verified attacks on humans by mountain lions in the state since 1890, six of which were fatal. The feline species’ estimated population ranges between 4,000 and 6,000 statewide, according to Department of Fish and Game figures. The last mountain lion attack was in Humboldt county in January 2007, and the last sighting in the this area was in May near the Chesbro Reservoir northwest of Morgan Hill.
Mountain lions are protected from hunting under Proposition 117, passed in 1990. Police are not supposed to shoot a mountain lion if the animal is not an imminent threat, and individuals whose livestock or pets are threatened may shoot at a cat after applying for a 10-day permit from the Department of Fish and Game, Martarano said.
In August 2006, a mountain lion was killed by residents with a permit in northeast Morgan Hill after it killed four goats and mauled five others.
There were two mountain lions killed in Santa Clara County in 2000, two in 2001, four in 2002, four in 2003, one in 2004 and two in 2005, according to the Department of Fish and Game’s Web site.
Most mountain lions found in residential or urban areas are young cats recently pushed out by their mothers to find their own hunting territory. Sometimes they use creek channels such as Uvas Creek to get around, according to mountain lion expert Henry Coletto, who served as a Fish and Game warden in the county for 37 years.
The police received two non-descript calls concerning mountain lions over the weekend, according to Gilroy Police Department Sgt. Jim Gillio.
