Of course, if you do encounter a lion in these mountains, you’ll want to be prepared. The one in 2014 happened to a small boy, who survived and was even released from the hospital the next day. In the last century or so there have only been two mountain lion attacks on humans in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the one in 1909, at least, was found to have rabies. In that situation, though, your dog is the one in danger of becoming a snack. Of course, just as you would stay out of the pool when thunderstorms roll in, you still want to avoid walking your dog in the woods at sunset. If that’s the case, you should probably start fearing lightning or winning the lottery, because those things are much more likely to happen to you. You may be worried about getting attacked by a mountain lion. You could think of our panthers as biologically more like oversized house cats, which explains why they don’t roar, though they do purr. Interestingly, cougars aren’t considered “big cats” as that term is reserved for lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards and snow leopards exclusively. Puma, panther, and cougar are all interchangeable terms for the same species, the Puma concolor. As an icon of modern California environmentalism, they’re a beacon of hope and a testimony to natural preservation.Ī rose, by any other name, is still a mountain lion. As a keystone species, they play a vital role in regulating not only the population of the grazers and pests they prey on, but their own populations as well. As apex predators, they reign over their habitats with equal parts ferocity and grace. Mountain lions are literally at the peak of the Santa Cruz Mountains wild food web.