The True Story of a Predator's Deadly Return to Suburban America

THE BEAST IN THE GARDEN

BY

DAVID BARON

2004

This 277-page book is an important contribution to our understanding of the increasing interactions between large carnivores and humans. The author is a seasoned writer about science and environmental issues for National Public Radio and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This factual book chronicles the series of develops in both human and mountain lion behavior that eventually lead to an unthinkable fatal interaction. The subtitle: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature is more than that, it is a warning that we best not ignore.

The true story takes place in the Boulder/Idaho Springs areas northwest and west of Denver, Colorado in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The book is a grabber and will keep you turning pages until the end. What Mr. Baron has so artfully done is clearly explain the major biological, cultural and demographic factors that inevitably lead to humans becoming potential prey for an increasing cougar (mountain lion, puma) population. There is a cautionary note for all of us, even if we do not now live in an area inhabited by this largest purring cat in North America.

A major player in this story of habituated-to-humans cougars are deer... their traditional and major prey. Boulder County reduced the hunting harvest of deer and allowed citizens to feed deer around their dwellings. With cougar hunting greatly limited in the second half of the 1900's, these usually solitary hunters began to reclaim their native habitat which now contains a very large deer population. All animals have natural factors that limit their numbers and range, for Puma concolor, theirs, gray wolves, are gone. In short, the sequence goes like this: humans move into good quality lion habitat, deer increase in numbers and move into human neighborhoods, both wild species become more active during the day, dogs and cats are easy prey and humans are of no consequence to lions. Lions are excellent ambush hunters. The rest you can piece together.

So, as we celebrate the return of lions in many areas of their former habitat, we have an added responsibility to understand the consequences of our wildlife policies; and by the way... watch your behavior with deer, pets and any habituated large carnivore.

Wendel Johnson

Marinette, WI

This a true story about mountain lions and people. Boulder, Colorado is a town that is surrounded by nature and where the majority of the inhabitants are willing to tolerate the presence of wild animals within the city limits. This is true even when the deer damage their shrubs and flowers. David Baron tells the story of what happened when a wild animal, that years before was hunted to near extinction, gradually increased in population and returned to the area around Boulder. It is the story of what can happen when humans encroach on nature or invite nature into their community.

I picked up this book sometime ago. I still remember that I could not put it down after starting it. When I purchased this book, I was living in the area somewhat close to the cougar attacks. The book gave me a new perspective between man and nature. The author describes what happens when people choose to live or play in areas between the suburbs and the wilderness. Sometimes the suburbs in the deep night become the wilderness.

This is a good read. I highly recommend it.

This book does a superb job of helping the reader see nature as it is, as opposed to how many of us would prefer to imagine it to be. Although the book suggests some solutions to the macro sources of conflict between people and mountain lions, it doesn't provide much practical advice for surviving an aggressive encounter. Such advice can be found in the book Mountain Lion Alert by Stephen Torres.

One disconcerting detail that Baron provides in the description of the victim's remains is the damage done to the victim's face. Those familiar with the descriptions of other lion attacks in the past 15 years will recognize a pattern that is worth bearing in mind for anyone wishing to survive an attack. With a 65 - 150 lb animal attached to your head or face, you had better hope you have a suitably long knife located where you're conditioned to quickly find it if you want to have a chance of breaking off the attack. A hiking staff, pistol, can of mace, rock, backpack or any other weapon you might consider carrying in lion country will do you very little good once physical contact has been made.

If Baron decides to write a follow up book, I'd love to hear about the specific steps wildlife managers and citizens can take to help prevent cougars from becoming habituated to people. Some wildlife officers have attempted to reinstill or reinforce the natural fear cougars have of people by shooting them with rubber bullets or bean bags when they wander into residential areas. Frequent non-lethal hunts in areas where problems have begun to occur might be one of the most acceptable ways to stem habituation without killing any of these magnificent animals.

This book is sensationalist fabrication based on unwarranted extrapolation from one fatal mountain lion attack in Idaho Springs, Colorado. For some reason the author spends most of the book talking about Boulder, Colorado. I have lived in Boulder since 1967. The author is right about the liberal, nature loving culture in Boulder. However, that has nothing whatsoever to do with the fatal mountain lion attack in Idaho Springs. I have been hiking, climbing, back country skiing, and snowshoeing in the mountains around Boulder, and along the continental divide, for almost 50 years. During this time I have been fortunate enough to see a mountain lion one time. They do live in the mountains, but the risk of attack is negligible. The risk of being killed by domestic dogs is about 10 times higher, and the risk of being killed in a car accident is about 2000 times greater. It is easy to find statistics on the number of fatal mountain lion attacks, fatal attacks by domestic dogs, and car fatalities on line.
There is an excellent detailed review of this book written by Wendy Keefover-Ring, currently the Native Carnivore Protection Manager at The Humane Society of the United States, located in Boulder. The title is "Mountain Lions, Myths, And Media: A Critical Reevaluation of the Beast in the Garden". A pdf copy can be found with a Google search. Tom Chester has also compiled a realistic list of the risks of mountain lion attacks and various other outdoor hazards at [...]

"Beast in the Garden" was an extremely interesting book. It was full of facts and entertaining, although although a bit disturbing, at the same time. I live in an area where there are bears in many back yards and this book really takes a very informed look into the suburban/wildlife dynamic. I would definitely recommend it. My daughter is reading it now.

I write about conservation for various magazines and my own site, Saving Wild, so I was surprised I had not heard about this book until last week. I pride myself on living alongside, and I like to believe, in collaboration with, wild animals. But this book made me rethink everything. What is truly wild? Have humans intervened to the extent that we MUST now manage wildlife and wild places everywhere? How am I being unrealistic about the relationships between humans and wildness? Baron write so well, with a reporters eye for facts. The story is riveting but the message shook up my world. I am still processing it.

The premise that Boulder's "liberal" wildlife policies got Scott Lancaster killed by a habituated mountain lion 30 miles away in blue-collar Idaho Springs is science fiction. Worse, 20 + years after the fact, Beast's prediction of recolonizing suburban cougar plagues has never occurred, yet continues to be cited by a certain public as gospel.

In the three cougar generations of the cats having moved into Colorado's Front Range, the incidence of cougar conflicts has dropped dramatically, as it does everywhere the longer cougars share urban/suburban habitat with us. Long range studies cited recently by National Geographic show cougars (and many of other carnivores) habituate, adapt, not to be more aggressive, but to avoid us, especially in the closest of proximities.

Yet David Baron, an NRP reporter whose habituation premise has never been endorsed by a single cougar biologist or wildlife manager, has neither kept up with the cougar-human relations research, nor retracted the theory. Nor does Baron appear to understand that young cougars out on their own for the first time, or even orphaned cougars trying to fend for themselves, are typically the problem cougars. Mature cougars get to be breeders by being smart, by staying away from pets, livestock, and people, behavior mature females teach their young.

For a "science" writer still milking this story's sensational conclusion, failing to keep up with the cougar research is unconscionable. Want honest accounts of cougar-human relations? Read Will Stolzenburg's Heart of a Lion, and Beth Pratt's When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors.

Wildlife protection and urban infringement have changed man's relationship with nature. Today, no area is safe as habituated animals adapt to city life. Mr. Baron does an outstanding job of explaining our association with wildlife, and provides a startling glimpse into our future. Entertaining, and informative, I highly recommend this book.

This true-story unfolds like a back-country murder mystery. You know how it all ends, and yet it was a gripping page turner. Truly, a terrifying book that is unfortunately a warning about what happens when you fail to give mother nature the fear and respect she deserves.

This book does a fairly good job of documenting the mental attributes of our most prevalent urban prey species, "homo semi-sapiens wimpus". The treacly, sentimentalized vision of "nature" espoused by the urban bleating grass-eaters in Boulder is a clear demonstration of the need for accelerated Darwinian selection by the larger carnivores. I would fully support a Dept. of Fish & Game relocation program designed to move cougars, black bears, and grizzly bears into the urban parks and backyards of the homes of the bleeding-heart leftist wussies who inhabit our larger cities. After all, the urban lefitsts are herbivores, the natural prey for large carnivores. Chomp down, dudes!!

The person who wrote this book is obviously trying to make a great story out of a very shy and human-fearing animal. Just read the following quote and you will see all his arguments are useless:

ARE CALIFORNIA'S COUGARS DANGEROUS?
Encounters with cougars are rare and the risk of injury or death from an attack is infinitely small. In fact, your chances of being attacked or killed by a domestic dog are much, much greater. DFG statistics show that, in the last 20 years, hunting accidents killed more than 85 Californians and injured 700. In the last 100 years, only 14 fatal cougar attacks occurred on the entire North American continent. In that time, more than 15,000 people were killed by lightning; 4,000 by bees; 10,000 by deer; 1,300 by rattlesnakes. Yosemite National Park has cougars plus 3 million visitors a year. There has never been an attack in the park's history. More visitors have died from rockslides. On the list of daily "dangers" faced by Californians, cougars are but a footnote.

source: [...]
As you can see, life will be saver when people stop hunting (for being killed by their own dogs!)

Like another reviewer, I actually rate this junk with zero stars. The book serves no purpose but to sensationalize and scare; humans continue to destroy and build and then have the nerve to complain about encounters with wildlife. Read "Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators" for the truth behind Boulder's "beasts" and other purported man-eaters. It's not our garden; it's their domain.

The best (and worst) thing for me about this book was the reaction of the government officials throughout. Plagued with petty bickering and turf wars, these people put wildlife management at a far lower priority than personal grudges.

There's a cliffhanger at the end of every chapter. The story pulls you in from the beginning with the finding of the human corpse, the victim of a weird killer who opened the chest cavity and scooped out the organs. I read it on vacation on the front range in Montana, and it changed my perspective on hiking. I usually let the kids range pretty far afield when we hike, but I actually found myself keeping them closer and teaching them to scan the trail and the trees around us.

The top of the food chain is a pitiless place.