“Three dogs were attacked by mountain lions!” my mother reported at the end of January. My parents moved to Grand Lake this past summer after my mom got a job at the high school in Granby. They had previously lived in Lyons — a small town in the foothills just north of Boulder — so nearby wildlife activity was not a new experience for them.
However, the volume and proximity of the lion attacks, as well as the wide variety of wildlife they’d already seen in their new backyard, had my mother gravely concerned for our two family dogs, Tato and Nella.
Her report was not just conversational; it was a warning. I had agreed to house-sit for my parents the weekend of February 18, and while there, I was instructed by Mom to stand outside with a flashlight each night when I let the dogs out.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife had already advised residents of the Grand Lake area to take precautions for themselves and their pets after three incidents involving mountain lions between December 19 and January 23 left two dogs injured and one dead. These reports, in addition to many more last year in Nederland (as reported by the Colorado Sun), have left people throughout the mountain communities of Colorado like I was: shivering outside in the dark, flashlight in hand, wondering what we would actually do if a mountain lion decided to show up.
Wildlife incidents are inevitable in Colorado’s mountain communities. Residents know and expect to share their neighborhoods with other-than-human creatures. But recent sightings along the Front Range also have those residents wondering: Is it any safer?
On February 18, a Reddit user posted a photo of a mountain lion in a tree on South Boulder Creek Trail near Marshall Mesa. On February 15, a Twitter account associated with Boulder County Parks & Open Space posted a photo of a mountain lion paw print in the snow. Another Twitter user replied to that tweet with a video of a mountain lion walking through a yard in the Boulder foothills.
And on January 19, former Broncos player Derek Wolfe — an enthusiastic hunter — had posted on Instagram about how he had (legally) hunted and killed a mountain lion using a bow and arrow. Wolfe said the lion had been “wreaking havoc in a rural neighborhood” — which turned out to be Grant, southwest of Denver.
Adding to the perceived threat: In an early February press release, CPW announced that the bird flu (aka Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza), which has been deadly for Colorado birds, had been linked to the death of a mountain lion found just outside of Gunnison.
According to Travis Duncan, CPW’s public information supervisor, “There is limited information available on symptoms of HPAI in mountain lions; however, available data on HPAI infection in domestic cats and other wild felids suggest that they may exhibit signs of respiratory illness, lethargy, poor appetite, and possibly neurologic signs such as seizures.”
HPAI could make its way to Front Range cougars, Duncan says: “Since this particular clade of the virus does spill over into mammals, it is likely that periodic mammal cases will continue to occur as long as the virus is circulating in wild birds.”
In July 2021, Englewood police had their first encounter with a mountain lion. According to Dave Lewis, the code enforcement officer for the Englewood Police Department, the cougar was found underneath someone’s deck near a local high school.
At the end of January, Englewood had another big cat scare. The EPD posted on Facebook that “a mountain lion was reportedly sighted in the area of South Tejon Street and West Wesley Avenue,” and listed tips for what to do during a mountain lion encounter. Between the Facebook post, chatter in the community on social media platforms, and several media outlets reporting that there had been a sighting, the report blew up, Lewis says — adding to the already existing sense of alertness in the neighborhood.
Kara Van Hoose, CPW’s Northeast Region public information officer, says that CPW looked for the mountain lion but could not find any evidence of it. “We weren’t able to see it ourselves, and there was unfortunately no taped video evidence that we were able to view, so we really don’t know,” she says. Two days later, the EPD received a report of a “cat” on someone’s roof. Lewis says that the EPD suspected it could have been related to the mountain lion sighting, so, the department “dispatched an animal welfare officer to check, and it ended up being a house cat.”
There seems to be a perception of increased mountain lion sightings and reports, according to wildlife officials; however, they say they have not found any significant increases in the state’s mountain lion population, and they have not noticed any increases in abnormal mountain lion behavior.
What officials have noticed is a rising human population — and even changes in human behavior.
“We haven’t seen a huge spike in the mountain lion population recently,” says Van Hoose. “I would think it’s more due to people moving into the area like we’ve seen over the past ten years in Colorado, and also moving farther into the mountains [and] into more isolated areas.”
In Grand County, Rachael Gonzales, public information officer for CPW’s Northwest Region, says that there has been “increased reported conflict between mountain lions, people and pets this last year compared to previous years.”
However, she explains, “Grand County has seen an increase in people living in homes that traditionally [have] been utilized more in the summer. Increased sightings are likely because more people are looking for evidence of a mountain lion being in the area, increased human activity in areas historically quiet, and [because] an abundance of cameras that capture the mountain lion activity likely leads to more awareness of mountain lion activity.”
Gonzales says the mountain lion population and density in the area is “estimated to be similar” to what it was last year. She stresses that what’s changed is the human awareness of mountain lions, not mountain lion behavior.
Grand County is traditionally known as mountain lion habitat, but the Front Range is cougar territory, too. “We consider that pretty much every acre west of the Front Range highways [U.S. 36 and CO 93] is part of a cougar territory,” says Dave Hoerath, spokesperson for Boulder County Parks & Open Space.
To the east, Van Hoose notes, mountain lions have historically traveled down to the Front Range along rivers and greenbelts, into what are now developed and populated areas, in search of food. “They would normally stay at higher elevations during warmer months, but in the colder months they come down to the Front Range level, because that’s where the deer are,” she says.
Occasional encounters, therefore, should be expected: “I wouldn’t say you [will] see one every week, of course, but you shouldn’t be surprised when you do.”
Video doorbells and security cameras also contribute to the increasing attention being given to the mountain lions that have quietly been here all along. Van Hoose explains that cougars are usually active from dusk until dawn, so motion-activated cameras have created a growing body of evidence of their activity in urban areas.
Van Hoose suspects that more mountain lions may have taken refuge in the Front Range than usual this year owing to exceptional cold and snow in the mountains, though she adds that no research has been done, and the idea has not created any increased level of concern.
In addition to working for the Englewood Police Department, Lewis served as a past president of the animal welfare association of Colorado and is an agent with the state’s Department of Agriculture. He became interested in the relationship between mountain lions and urban communities after Englewood’s cougar encounter last year. He recognized not only an increase in Colorado’s population, but an increase in outdoor recreation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had record numbers of people visiting a lot of our open spaces and our parks” in Englewood, he says.
Mountain lions are shy, according to Lewis. They do not want to be around people, and they don’t want to be seen. “Most of the encounters that are happening along the Front Range, usually, are surprise encounters,” he says, adding that it’s not as if the animals are stalking humans. “We’re not seeing unusual behaviors; we’re not seeing aggressive behaviors.”
Even cases of mountain lions killing or attacking pets are not considered to be abnormal. “Mountain lions will go for the most easily accessible food source and cannot tell the difference between a fox and a dog,” notes Gonzales.
“Mountain lions will eat what’s around,” agrees Van Hoose. “I mean, it’s our responsibility, too, living in more metro areas, but also kind of on the fringes towards the mountains, to be aware that it’s also mountain lion territory. So that means leashing your pets [and] keeping an eye on them when they’re in the backyard.”
CPW discourages police departments from getting involved with wildlife. During circumstances in which intervention must occur — such as Englewood’s mountain lion incident last year — CPW will usually capture and relocate the animals to less populated environments. In Grand Lake, CPW recently relocated two sub-adult lions that had been spending too much time in and near town.
According to Gonzales, CPW did decide to euthanize one mountain lion involved in one of the attacks against a dog after a wildlife officer “determined there was a threat to human health and safety.” A pet owner killed a second lion involved in one of the other attacks that “wildlife officers also determined to be a threat to human health and safety,” Gonzales says. “It’s important to keep in mind, just because an animal is attacking your pet, you do not have the legal right to kill the animal unless you feel your life is threatened. Each case is investigated by wildlife officers.”
In Englewood, as well as the state as a whole, not only has the human population increased, Lewis notes, but many of the people moving here come from areas with a much lower wildlife presence, which may also contribute to the increased media attention and excitement that urban wildlife sightings have received.
Just because development has encroached on wildlife habitat does not mean the wildlife has gone away, he adds. “It’s only natural for these animals…to adapt to their ever-changing surroundings.”
Englewood and other counties and municipalities have worked to spread information about wildlife, how to be prepared for wildlife, and what to do if you encounter wildlife. “We remind our foothills visitors that they are entering ‘lion country’ at our trailheads,” says Boulder County’s Hoerath.
In Grand County, being prepared for wildlife “is something we can’t stress enough,” Gonzales says. “Grand County is mountain lion country. People living and visiting Grand Lake, Granby, Kremmling, Winter Park, etc., should be vigilant at all times and take the proper precautions to prevent unnecessary conflicts between people, pets and wildlife.”
CPW provides extensive information about what to do in the event of a mountain lion encounter. It recommends remembering the acronym S.M.A.R.T., as in, “STOP. MAKE yourself look big. ANNOUNCE firmly, ‘leave me alone.’ RETREAT by backing away slowly. TELL an adult or report the sighting to an official.” More information can be found in CPW’s “Living With Lions” brochure.
According to Lewis, wildlife encounters are a reality but not necessarily a threat: “It’s just one of those things that you need to be prepared for, but not scared of.”
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