CARTER LAKE — Mountain lions roaming the rural area where Keith and Georgina Minto raise llamas and alpacas have killed four of their animals in the past nine months.
The Mintos have lived and raised livestock there for the past 22 years and say they never before have had problems with the wild felines. They worry that the predators’ natural foods are declining.
They also worry about neighbors’ children, livestock and pets, adding that a nearby resident’s cat was killed.
Mountain lions are native to Colorado, and the Front Range is among their prime habitat, according to the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s website. But most people will hardly ever see the stealthy beasts, and attacks on humans are rare.
“Elk and deer are their main prey, but (ranchers) do lose livestock from time to time,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill.
The Division of Wildlife has not taken any more than the usual number of reports of lions’ going after livestock across the state or in Larimer County this year, she said.
Minto contacted the local office after the last two killings two weeks ago. Wildlife officers set a mountain lion trap but did not catch a big cat. Minto wants the live trap out there longer in the hopes of catching and relocating the mountain lion.
Instead, wildlife specialists offered Minto some advice to protect his llamas and alpacas, including keeping them in a barn at night and installing motion-detector lights that will flash on with the lions’ activity.
The rancher said he plans to build a barn, but in the meantime, he has moved most of the animals right up next to his home and, on Wednesday, bought two Akbash puppies bred to protect livestock.
He also plans to continue staying in a camper near his livestock pasture, a half mile up the road from his home, with a gun to take out any mountain lion he may encounter.
“They didn’t catch it, but I’ll catch it,” he said. “I’ll probably lose another animal. I’d just as soon it live, but not on my property.”
