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Your day in the Bay

By tfk on July 14, 2008.

West Oakland shooting sends one to hospital:

A person was shot in the chest and leg Sunday night in West Oakland, police said.

Teen dies in Oakland shooting:

A 15-year-old boy was shot to death Saturday night not far from his East Oakland home, police said.

Mountain lion jumps man in Palo Alto park:

An animal tracker hired by city officials was heading into Foothills Park in Palo Alto on Sunday night to hunt down and kill a mountain lion that attacked a man over the weekend, authorities said.

…the first known mountain lion attack in Palo Alto, said Palo Alto Police Agent Dan Ryan.

The 50-year-old hiker was uninjured but narrowly escaped with his life after the cat leaped onto him from behind about 4 p.m. Saturday….

The … man… was hiking along a trail that parallels Los Trancos Creek, Ryan said, when the cat lunged at him from above, hitting the man about shoulder height and sending him rolling down the slope toward the creek.

The man tumbled about 15 feet before he hit a tree, which blocked his fall. Looking up, he saw the lion roll past him down to the creek, pick itself up and scamper away, Ryan said.

"He was very lucky," said Ryan. "It was a legitimate attack in which the lion was going to kill the man."

Officials believe that the mountain lion was an adolescent, still learning the finer points of hunting, and that it misjudged the terrain and the size of its quarry.

The fact that it jumped a full-grown adult just a few hundred yards from a series of houses was enough for city officials to decide to try to kill the animal, Ryan said.

Rumors of Berkeley students heading out to climb onto the mountain lion and protect it are unconfirmed.

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Mountain lions are well-enough armed already, I think. But summer and fall are the traditional mountain lion-spotting seasons in the open space surrounding bay area cities. Alas, there's no good way to catch the youngster and give him remedial deer-hunting lessons.

Mountain lion attacks are really unusual. Unfortunately shootings in Oakland are routine.

When I was in Palo Alto during the '90s there were numerous reports of mountain lion stalkings and attacks in the Santa Cruz foothills. It should also be noted that Palo Alto Foothills Park is nowhere near Palo Alto. It is about 10 miles from PA.