Somewhere in the foothills east of San Jose, a mountain lion has no idea it triggered a helicopter rescue.
NBC Bay Area reported that warning signs now greet hikers at the trailheads of Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve after a lion was reported along the Calaveras Fault Trail. The postings follow an incident late last week in which a man hiking the preserve’s Boccardo Loop Trail called 911 to say a mountain lion was following him. With spotty cell service, he stayed put two miles from the trailhead until a Santa Clara County Sheriff’s helicopter found him, landed and flew him out unhurt.
Whether he was ever in danger is a separate question. The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, which manages the 1,611-acre preserve, said the animal showed none of the behaviors that signal a hunt, no crouching, no sustained trailing. It sounded like a lion being a lion.
The rescue capped a strange week for the species. Days later a mountain lion spent a Saturday night in a tree near the Golden Gate Park Panhandle, a rare confirmed sighting inside San Francisco. Biologists think that cat came up from the South Bay through fragmented habitat.
With 4,000 to 6,000 lions statewide and more people on more trails, encounters are up. State records list fewer than 50 verified attacks on humans since 1890.
The advice never changes. Do not run. Look big, make noise, back away slowly and give the cat an exit. It wants one more than you do.