Ecojustice: How to Embrace our Wild Predatory Relatives

In this industrialized country, we have had a war on wild what we call “predators,” helicopter gunners shooting wolves to protect caribou herds in Alaska, or taking them out in Idaho to benefit elk — but really to benefit the human hunters who prey on the elk. Every day is open season on mountain lions in Nevada. The majestic cats are under attack as prey for hunters, as unintended victims of traps set for bobcats, and as the primary target of a $900,000 a year state-sponsored effort to cull species deemed problematic by the state. Between 2000 and 2021, at least 4,229 mountain lions were killed in Nevada by hunters, trappers, and the states lethal removal effort, according to data from the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

Humans are the greatest threat to mountain lions. In California, close to 40 million people live within, or adjacent to, cougar habitat.

Mountain lions as a species are not listed as endangered. But generally speaking, vehicle strikes, rat poison, inbreeding, wildfires, poaching, urban encroachment complaints, livestock depredation kill permits, and freeway systems are all contributing to what scientists call an extinction vortex.

In this show we discuss the efforts to protect predators, particularly the mountain lion, who are still somewhat numerous, but declining fast in the world of sprawling housing developments and freeways.

First, we air parts of a documentary series called California Mountain Lions, Legends of California, by UC Davis Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center. Featured speakers are Walter Boyce, UC Davis, Dave Garcelon, Institute of Wildlife Studies, T. Winston Vickers, Veterinarian, UC Davis, and Jessica Sanchez SoCal Puma Project, Eric Gagne, Post Doc, Colorado State Univ., Trish Smith, The Nature Conservancy, Pablo Bryant, SDSU Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve.

Then we share from Indigenous stories and mythology about the importance of predators like the big cats, or jaguars in their southern relatives. The first story, however, is from the Old Man Coyote cycle of stories from the Crow People of Montana, more known as the Apsalooke. We use these stories as the Indigenous people did, to teach about the relationship between creative forces, like the Sun, who is also known as Old Man Coyote in the guise of the trickster predator, to the sacred mountains and waters, down to the people themselves.

We include sections from an interview our host Jessica Aldridge did with Beth Pratt, California Regional Executive Director of National Wildlife Federation, focusing on wildlife connectivity and existing and planned transportation crossings as a solution to protect wildlife.