Tracking Mountain Lions: Dr. Winston Vickers on Saving California's Big Cats

Um, well, I had to have a thesis.

Uh, had to develop a thesis project as part of-

Mm

... uh, the epidemiology degree.

And so we decided to do, actually dive into social science and do a survey of the residents of, um, Southern California and their attitudes about mountain lions.

Because at the time, uh, mountain lions were cl- and, and still are to some degree, they, they generate either a lot of fear or they generate a huge amount of admiration.

You know, they call them one of the charismatic megafauna species for a reason, 'cause they're charismatic.

You know, they're beautiful and, and wild and really engage a lot of people on a positive side, but then people can have negative experiences if the mountain lions, uh, get into their goat pen and, you know, kill their pet goat-

Mm-hmm

... or whatever it might be.

Uh, and so they have this multifaceted, you know, element to their, their existence, especially in a place like Southern California where there's so many people.

And so we wanted to study the attitudes.

No one had done an attitude survey to help guide how to educate people about mountain lions.

I mean, what were their fears, how well supported were they, uh, you know, within the community.

Uh, and so we had to sort of start there, and so we did that initially as my thesis project.

And during that time, though, I was going to the field, helping to capture mountain lions, you know, getting that hands-on experience with them at the same time.

Let's talk about the very first time you did that.

Was it scary? So when you say you, you're, you're darting them and collaring them, right? That's what you're doing.

Right.

Yes, that's what we were doing.

So-

How does one go about this? Do you [laughs] does someone just send you out on your own, or is there a group of you? Like, the first time you do that seems like it would be a little daunting.

Well, there, there are two kind of fundamental ways of doing it.

You can use hounds to actually find the animals, you know, by sniffing up their trails, and then, uh, chasing them so that they go up a tree, and then you dart them in the tree.

And then you either-