Word: mountainer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Cape Town has seen worse, and a gentle city surrounded by the natural splendor of a mountain and two oceans isn't particularly prone to panic. Nelson Mandela's ANC was only ever partially successful in mobilizing residents of the notoriously lethargic city to take action against apartheid; Osama bin Laden's chances of turning Cape Town into an epicenter of global jihad are, at best, remote...
What's clear is that humans have expanded into habitat that was once the relatively exclusive domain of the cougar. "We're having more encounters because we're moving into their territory," says Lynn Sadler, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation, a national pro-cougar lobbying group based in Sacramento, Calif. "We are not only reducing the size of their available range but fragmenting it." She recalls a recent incident in Roseville, Calif., where a lion walked right through a brand-new apartment complex. The site straddled a natural pathway that lions used to travel between neighboring ranges. "There...
Steve Torres, an Arizona naturalist and the author of the book Mountain Lion Alert, has formulated some advice. Do not run from a lion--they recognize prey by flight. Yell and scream instead. Eye contact, too, establishes a threat to the cougar, or you may wave it away. Raise your arms to make yourself seem bigger than you actually are. If in a group, band together and pick up the children. If you are with pets, forget about them. Defend your children. And if the lion attacks, fight back, brandishing a threatening object--knife, branch, stick...
...what can be done to prevent lions from roaming on property? Torres says anything that attracts deer increases the chances of mountain lion incursions. "Landscape your yard with native plants that do not attract deer," Torres advises. And don't leave garbage exposed. It attracts smaller animals, which is what a hungry cougar is looking...
...have only recently developed an affection for nature. My contemporaries seem to be leaning in the same direction. Friends who used to watch only baseball games now also watch birds. When we visit one another, we make treks through woods or take to waterways and mountain trails. For them, this all may represent a return to nature, but I cannot recall being there in the first place...