An adult mountain lion was recently spotted in a Santa Clarita backyard, and now officials are warning residents that wildlife encounters might be on the rise.

Stacy Berrol, a resident of Valencia, shared a picture on Facebook Sunday morning of a mountain lion in her backyard.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Berrol said. “This beautiful animal was just pacing, he was pawing at the slider. This cat knew something was on the other side of the glass.”

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Berrol then ran upstairs to grab her phone so that she could take photos of the animal and call law enforcement officials.

This is not the first time a mountain lion has been spotted in a Santa Clarita backyard. In April, a mountain lion was spotted at a home off of Iron Canyon Road.

Victor Micarone was in his backyard when he noticed one of his cats was acting erratic.

“I have two domestic house cats,” Micarone said. “I looked over and one of them was bouncing off the door.”

He then looked back, and came face to face with the mountain lion.

“I turned around, and he was crouched right there,” said Micarone. “He was about five to six feet away from me.”

While wildlife officials advise against running from a mountain lion – to keep the animal from chasing what it considers fleeing prey – Micarone said that he immediately ran in one direction, and the mountain lion took off in another.

He went out later to see if the cat was still there, but only found pawprints and a clump of torn-up dirt where it had been.

Mountain lions and other wild animals need three things to survive, according to Ranger Frank Hoffman of the Placerita Canyon Nature Center: food, water and shelter.

Factors like fruit trees, water fixtures and low shrubbery can contribute to any sort of wild animal coming onto a person’s property, he said. The mountain lion in Valencia could also have been scouting out a new territory.

“It may be a young (mountain lion) … banished from the territory, and it might be out there trying to find its own territory,” said Hoffman. “Mountains lions tend to stay with mom for about a year and a half.”

Mountain lions have been suspected in pet attacks in the past. For residents in Sand Canyon and parts of Santa Clarita bordering on natural areas, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife offers several tips on living in close proximity with wild animals:

• Don’t hike alone. Go in groups, with adults supervising children.
• Keep children close. Observations of captured wild mountain lions reveal that the animals seem especially drawn to children. Keep children within sight at all times.
• Do not approach a mountain lion. Most mountain lions will try to avoid a confrontation.
• Give them a way to escape.
• Do not run from a mountain lion. Running may stimulate a mountain lion’s instinct to chase. Instead, stand and face the animal. Make eye contact. Pick up small children if possible so they don’t panic and run. Although it may be awkward, pick them up without bending over or turning away from the mountain lion.
• Do not crouch down or bend over. In Nepal, a researcher studying tigers and leopards watched the big cats kill cattle and domestic water buffalo while ignoring humans standing nearby. He surmised that a human standing up is just not the right shape for a cat’s prey. On the other hand, a person squatting or bending over looks a lot like a four-legged prey animal.
• Try to appear larger. Raise your arms; open your jacket if you are wearing one; pick up small children; throw stones, branches or whatever you can reach without crouching or turning your back; wave your arm slowly and speak firmly in a loud voice. The idea is to convince the mountain lion that you are not prey and that you may be a danger to it.

Residents who encounter a mountain lion or any wild animal and feel endangered are encouraged to call the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at (951) 443-2944.

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