If you’ve been following the news lately, you may have heard about recent mountain lion sightings at Mission Trails Regional Park.
While an encounter with a mountain lion can certainly be startling, the presence of mountain lions and other wildlife at Mission Trails is also a great reminder that the park provides important habitat for native species in the middle of our urban region.
Of course, there’s much more to Mission Trails wildlife than mountain lions. At more than 8,000 acres, Mission Trails is home to an incredible variety of wildlife. Depending on where and when you visit, you might see mule deer, coyotes, bobcats, rabbits, roadrunners, hawks, owls, snakes and many other animals that depend on the park’s open space for food, water and shelter.
Sometimes, the evidence of that wildlife is impossible to miss. I recently walked out onto the terrace at the Visitor Center and found what looked like a tiny crime scene: a trail of black crow feathers and white droppings scattered across the cement. A murder of crows is one thing. This appeared to be a murder of just one crow.
We never saw exactly what happened, but it was a vivid reminder that nature at Mission Trails is not always neat or pretty. Animals are hunting, eating and surviving here every day.
And sometimes, wildlife gives us a good laugh. One of our trail cameras recently captured a coyote stopping directly in front of the camera to scoot its backside along the ground. The video quickly took off on social media, earning more than 1.5 million views on Instagram and giving one Mission Trails coyote a very unexpected five minutes of internet fame.
We at the nonprofit Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation (MTRP Foundation) have had an especially interesting window into that wildlife through research cameras placed throughout the park. The cameras have captured everything from coyotes and bobcats to mule deer and, yes, mountain lions.
Most of this activity happens without park visitors ever knowing it.
That’s one of the things that makes Mission Trails so special. Millions of people live just a short drive from the park, yet wildlife continues to live, hunt, nest and move through this protected open space.
Of course, sharing the park with wildlife also means knowing how to safely enjoy their habitat.
Mountain lions generally avoid people, and encounters are uncommon. If you do see one, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife advises that you do not run or turn your back.
Face the animal, make yourself appear larger, make noise and give it a clear way to leave. Keep children close and pets leashed, and never approach a mountain lion or other wildlife.
Those are good practices for encounters with wildlife throughout the park: observe animals from a safe distance, never feed them and give them plenty of space.
Visitors can also help protect wildlife by staying on designated trails and keeping dogs on leash. These simple actions help reduce disturbances to habitat and to the animals that call Mission Trails home.
Preserving that habitat is an important part of the work we do at the MTRP Foundation in partnership with the City of San Diego. Through land acquisition, habitat restoration, environmental education, trail projects and other initiatives, the Foundation works to help preserve, protect and improve Mission Trails for both people and wildlife.
The recent attention surrounding a mountain lion at Mission Trails has understandably generated a lot of interest. We hope it also gives our neighbors another reason to appreciate what an extraordinary resource we have in our own backyard.
