Mountain lions/bears - no go for house purchase? (Arcadia: 2014, insurance)

[Domsey]

Thinking about buying a house about 1/5 mile from the foothills (like, the wide-open mountains) in the Arcadia area. The street dead-ends into the foothills, but the house does not directly abut open space. Talked to a neighbor up the street (closer to the foothills) who mentioned the occasional bear sightings and even a mountain lion sighting a few years back. The house is great, but I'm concerned about these large animals as I have small kids, nieces, nephews, a dog, etc. Is this an unnecessary risk to my family? I have no way to evaluate this as I have only ever dealt with the occasional coyote. Am I being paranoid?

Thanks

[BRinSM]

Paranoid? Yes. I can only think of one human death caused by mountain lion in my entire life and it was on a dirt trail in orange county nowhere near homes. As for animals, don't leave them outside over night and you won't have any problems.

[nightlysparrow]

Proximity to nature comes at a cost. But the biggest risk is wildfires. Insurance companies often charge an elevated premium for coverage.

Oh, and don't forget the rattlesnakes.

[genjy]

Yeah, fires, floods, and mudslides are something to seriously consider when living so close to the foothills.

I wouldn't worry much about bears and mountain lions, but more about coyotes attacking unsupervised small pets and children.

[woodsart]

I lived in the mountains for years with bears, mountain lions, and coyotes. I never heard of coyotes attacking children, even in the Sierra mountains where my father lived when I was a child. Coyotes will kill cats and small dogs, so keep them supervised or indoors.

Mountain lions -- in all my years of being in the mountains, I only ever SAW one. Very briefly on the road at about 5 am. They are elusive and rarely even show up.

Bears are largely afraid of both people and dogs. The braver ones that get used to people can be a nuisance but they are nothing to worry about. They will go away if you shout at them and bang on something like pots/pans. All you have to worry about are trash cans. You have to lock up your trash if bears roam the neighborhood. They will otherwise open your cans and throw trash everywhere. They will also come eat out of your garden if you grow veggies.

I'd worry more about wildfire and mudslides. Have a good evacuation plan including what you'd grab in one carload if you needed to. Mudslides -- be aware if you are adjacent to a wash that you could face flash flooding. I went through a couple floods in the mountains. The big ones took entire houses out that were adjacent to small streams.

[genjy]

Originally Posted by woodsart

I lived in the mountains for years with bears, mountain lions, and coyotes. I never heard of coyotes attacking children, even in the Sierra mountains where my father lived when I was a child. Coyotes will kill cats and small dogs, so keep them supervised or indoors.

Some coyotes in urban environments aren't afraid of humans. I've seen coyotes strolling down my neighborhood's residential streets and even staring at me in my own front yard in broad daylight. I wouldn't trust these "urbanized" coyotes to not attack little kids.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

We recently had a near-fatal mountain lion attack here in the Bay Area. It was during daylight in an area that gets swamped by runners and hikers. The victim was a tween kid (11 or 12 I think).

Garbage-addicted predators are unpredictable. I suspect that being garbage addicted is their equivalent of bath salts. After all, imagine what they end up inadvertently ingesting when they belly up to the easy opening "Waste Zero" curbside cans.

[nightlysparrow]

I've seen a mountain lion running across a major street at 9pm here and some pretty bold coyotes right on the sidewalks, lots of skunks, which are now the #1 rabies carriers in CA, and a bunch of rattlesnakes, one right in my backyard. Wildlife is around, and with the drought, they come in closer.

[CA4Now]

A family of bears visited a Monrovia neighborhood a couple of months ago.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...277240641.html

A bear caught on film by a La Canada Flintridge resident (the bear ate the family's Halloween pumpkin): http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/lo...280897892.html

A family of mountain lions caught on film in the Glendora Foothills in October: http://abc7.com/news/mountain-lion-f...ndora-/360537/

[genjy]

A bear attacked Santa in Glendora: Santa Is No Match For Wandering Bear