What To Do If You See A Mountain Lion While Hiking in the Bay Area

Updated 12:30 p.m. on Monday

Two decades ago, Zara McDonald was on a run in Marin near Mount Tamalpais around dusk when a mountain lion suddenly appeared above her, just 5 feet away — and stared at her.

Its eyes then fixed on something behind her, and the mountain lion disappeared back into the bushes. When she turned around, she saw three deer on the hillside behind her.

“I felt really small,” said McDonald, a biologist and researcher who’s now the founder and president of the Bay Area Puma Project, a local wild cat research and conservation organization that’s part of the Felidae Conservation Fund. “I disrupted his opportunity to get a meal.”

• Jump straight to: How to avoid mountain lions — and what to do if you see one

And while she had fears, “he was not a threat,” she said. Rather, “I left feeling like I was an intruder.”

For McDonald, this experience back in the early 2000s was “transformative” in how she saw humans’ relationship to nature. Now, her organization has around 200 cameras placed around the Bay Area that collect data on mountain lion movement — and is also studying their fecal matter for information on genetics and overall population health.

The mountain lion is the second-largest cat in all of North America and is native to the Bay Area. While you may have never seen one, 40% of the state is considered suitable for mountain lion habitat, making it likely that these elusive animals are around hiking trails or areas you might already be frequenting.

Mountain lions are apex predators, but experts say for the most part, they just want to do their own thing. According to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, there have been only 26 total verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California in the last four decades — and four deaths.

So how common are these animals, really? And how afraid should you be of them?

“Education is our best tool for preventing conflict,” McDonald said. “When people understand mountain lion behavior, fear turns into respect. And respect is the foundation of coexistence.”

How do I know it’s a mountain lion?

You should know: upwards of 90% of all “mountain lion sightings” in California are not actually mountain lions. And there are only about 3,200 to 4,500 lions across the entire state, said Mairan Smith, a CDFW unit biologist for the Bay Delta region.

In the Bay Area, they’re often confused for bobcats or stray domestic cats. But an actual mountain lion will be:

• Much larger, with adult males reaching around 8 feet long and up to 150 pounds
• Gray, brown or tan in color with black-tipped ears
• Likely traveling alone.

Where am I most likely to see a mountain lion?

Smith said they thrive in redwood forests, brushland and mountain environments — all of which are habitats found in the Bay Area.

While the animals can live almost everywhere in the state, most people who report sightings are closer to the rural-urban divide, she said — not only because these areas are more likely to be their habitat, but also because they’re often a source of livestock or other food.

Mountain lions are predators, and their main prey is deer. “Wherever deer move, lions are going to follow,” McDonald said.

For food or other resources, they will travel across large territories — up to around 200 square miles for males, which makes places like urban parks, which connect them from area to area, so important, McDonald said.

“Mountain lions are really trying to figure out how to get that space they need so they can move through it safely and reproduce,” she said.

Given this movement, conservation experts want to keep populations of mountain lions connected — and join currently siloed groups to one another. John Benson, associate professor of Vertebrate Ecology at the University of Nebraska’s School of Natural Resources, is currently studying population dynamics of mountain lions across California to better “understand what we can do from a conservation perspective to get more connectivity.”

Benson said in the Bay Area, the waters of the San Francisco Bay itself — as well as human infrastructure like housing development and roads — all play a role in dividing up populations. And as they travel from one open space area to another, this may raise your chances of running into a mountain lion. 

But as mountain lions and human development share more of the same space, the danger to these animals increases. One of the leading causes of mountain lion mortalities is being struck by a car, McDonald said.

“Mountain lions still live in the Bay Area and move through the Bay Area because we’ve preserved enough habitat to support them,” she said. “But along with that privilege comes the responsibility to coexist,” — and it’s a common misconception that mountain lions are becoming more adapted to humans, she said.

“We’re seeing more mountain lion activity near urban edges, not because they’re changing — but because we are, and development is pushing deeper into their habitat,” she said. “It’s really just survival instinct for them. It’s not anything to do with humans — it’s in spite of humans that they’re going into these areas.”

How can I avoid mountain lion encounters altogether?

Around your home

While attacks on humans by mountain lions are extremely rare, they are nonetheless “a risk to outdoor pets and livestock,” Smith said. “It’s really important to keep your pets inside.”

That goes for outdoor cats and unsupervised dogs in yards as well as livestock like goats and sheep, she said — advising you keep them fully enclosed at night or consider other methods of safeguarding them, like a livestock guardian dog or noise deterrents.

“Anywhere in the Bay Area, if you have livestock, it’s something you should probably be thinking about,” Smith said.

You can also clear brush around your property or install lights if you’re worried about hiding spots for mountain lions, Smith said.

If you feed stray cats that approach your home, Smith said that the food you leave out can also attract deer, and mountain lions may follow as they hunt their prey — the food itself might tempt them.

“Mountain lions will come up and eat cat food off of people’s porches,” Smith said.

But for the most part, “the last thing most [mountain lions] want to do is encounter us,” Benson said. “In general, they do an excellent job of staying away from people and avoiding areas where they think they’re likely to run into people.”

On the trail

If you’re concerned about running into a mountain lion while walking or hiking on a trail, remember that they’re nocturnal and crepuscular animals — meaning they are most active at night and during the sunset and sunrise hours.

This means that you can avoid being out on the trail altogether at those times — or allay your fears by traveling in pairs on trails if you know you’re in an area they inhabit.

Mountain lions also tend to stick to densely vegetated areas. So if you’re worried about stumbling upon one, head to a more open area.

What to do if you see a mountain lion

If the mountain lion is still some distance from you, and you think they haven’t yet noticed you, “you could just sort of quietly slip away,” Benson said.

But if the mountain lion has indeed spotted you, remember: “the last thing you want to do is run or show fear,” Benson said. Stand your ground, he said, and look as big as possible. If you have a dog or child with you, you can pick them up.

“If you have a backpack, you can put that over your head to make yourself seem a bit bigger,” he said. If the mountain lion is advancing toward you, you can even throw rocks or sticks at it, he said.

“There are certainly a lot of stories out there of people that successfully were able to fight the mountain lion off.”

But in general, remember: mountain lion attacks — especially fatal ones — are extremely rare.

“The most likely thing that will happen is that it will walk away,” Smith said.

And remember: Even just seeing a mountain lion is “pretty special,” she said. And if you do, you can report your sighting on the CDFW website, which will be forwarded to a regional biologist for study, and the Bay Area Puma Project’s own Puma and Bobcat Sightings Map.

This story has been updated to reflect that the Bay Area Puma Project itself is not an advocacy group.