'Brazen' mountain lions worry Santa Rosa neighborhood

<p>State Fish and Game officials are investigating a Santa Rosa woman’s encounter with two mountain lions Monday afternoon that has left some in her Skyhawk neighborhood on edge.</p><p>Nicole Lentz was walking her four-month old Labrador, Piper, behind her Mountain Hawk Way home when two juvenile cougars approached aggressively. Lentz kicked one of them repeatedly and swung her dog’s leash in their direction before making her way to a friend’s backyard.</p><p>“My voice is really hoarse from screaming and yelling for help,” Lentz said. “I feel like they were really hungry and they really wanted to eat my dog. I feel like they were hunting.”</p><p>Elsewhere in the east Santa Rosa neighborhood on Tuesday, residents were recalling with wonderment, and a measure of unease, the bold behavior of the two mountain lions. </p><p>“I stepped out onto my front porch and there was an animal a foot away from my foot,” said Stacey Szczekocki. “I was holding my 1½-year old. I screamed and it ran. It was not aggressive at all. It was just hanging out.”</p><p>“When we were moving into a canyon, we knew there would be wildlife,” she said. “(But) this is kind of unresolved for me. The police just kind of chased it off.”</p><p>Neighbor Nika Bowen has seen five mountain lions in the past two years — some in her neighborhood and others in nearby Annadel State Park. It was startling how unintimidated the mountain lions seen Monday were, she said.</p><p>As neighbors tried to alert each other to the cats presence, the cougars wandered around backyards and onto front porches.</p><p>“These two cats were so brazen, they weren’t afraid of us,” Bowen said.</p><p>Despite the scare, Bowen said she’s committed to enjoying her surroundings, albeit with an extra bit of caution.</p><p>“I’m not going to send my kids out in that field by themselves, but I’m certainly going to continue to walk and go up into Annadel,” she said. “I’m not willing to compromise that.”</p><p>Kyle Orr, spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game, said agency enforcement officers have begun an investigation. </p><p>There are between 4,000 and 6,000 mountain lions in California, according to Fish and Game estimates. But getting an accurate count of the elusive, solitary animal can be tricky, so figures are typically based on nearby deer populations, Orr said.</p><p>“That number has been pretty constant for some time, it hasn’t really increased,” he said.</p><p>Mountain lions have a territory of about 100 square miles and sightings are common but attacks are rare, Orr said. </p><p>Since 1890, there have been 14 verified attacks in California resulting in injury. Six of those were fatal encounters, according to Orr. The last confirmed attack was in January 2007 in Arcata.</p><p>“Definitely, encounters between humans and mountain lions are increasing somewhat,” he said. “Part of that is more than half of the state is considered mountain lion habitat.”</p><p>At nearby Austin Creek elementary school, a number of concerned parents called the campus Tuesday, said principal Devon Leaf.</p><p>The campus is “well prepared” and has recently practiced its lockdown drill, Leaf said.</p><p>“Kids were calm today and not too concerned,” she said.</p>