IT'S A WILD LIFE IN VALLEY SIMI RESIDENTS LEARN TO LIVE NEAR ANIMALS.

Byline: Eric Leach Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Many east Ventura County residents who live in the foothills at times share their backyards with mountain lions, coyotes and other wild animals looking for food.

A program called ``On the Edge'' was held at the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District headquarters this month to help them get along with the wild predators.

Developed by a number of wildlife organizations in California, including the Mountain Lion Foundation, The Nature of Wildworks, Mountains Restoration Trust and the California Wildlife Center, the program deals with the tensions that sometimes develop when people move into homes near the wilderness.

``Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks are connected by the hills, and that is where the animals are,'' said Colleen Janssen, a park district spokeswoman. ``When you go into the hills you are in the animals' home. If we are going to be in their area, we need to be respectful.''

At a Sept. 3 program at the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District headquarters, wildlife officials introduced a number of animals, including a blind 100-pound mountain lion named Pirate, to about 150 residents.

The animals on display also included a barn owl, great horned owl, a gopher snake, an opossum, a gray fox, a red-tailed hawk, and a skunk who was hidden in a barbecue.

Christa Mann, the southern California field representative for the Mountain Lion Foundation, conducted the ``On the Edge'' program, stressing the importance of keeping residential yards free of food. To illustrate the point about cleaning barbecues, her aide took the lid off one and the skunk's head popped up.

``We want to help people resolve or avoid any conflicts with these animals. Most conflicts are a result of inappropriate human behavior, like leaving our trash cans open or leaving our pet food outside,'' Mann said.

She said the program appeals to children because of the wildlife.

``The kids love the show. They love to see the animals. The adults feel we are helping them to solve their problems. Some people aren't aware of what they are going to encounter when they move to rural areas.''

Janssen said when people feed wild animals in their yards, bigger ones come around to eat the small ones.

``I think one of the most important things that Christa said is, 'A fed animal is a dead animal,''' Janssen said.

Sometimes the wild animals scare people, attack pets or damage property, and if someone calls authorities about a coyote, a bear or a mountain lion, the animal is sometimes killed.

When people put out poison bait to kill rodents, it can go up the food chain, killing larger animals, like two mountain lions found dead last fall in the Simi Hills from anticoagulant poisoning.

The California Department of Fish and Game has another program called ``Keep Me Wild,'' also to discourage people from leaving food around to attract wildlife, with tips on the Web site www.dfg.ca.gov.

Mann and Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said there are thousands of mountain lions in California, including five known to be living in the Santa Monica Mountains, and many others living in the mountains north of the San Fernando and Simi valleys.

People who feed deer in their yards sometimes wind up inadvertently attracting mountain lions, they said.

There are an estimated 35,000 black bears in California, the highest the number has ever been in recorded history, Martarano said.

Some of them have turned up recently in residential areas of the San Fernando, Conejo and Santa Clarita valleys.

Wildlife officials say this year's record rains led to abundant vegetation to feed growing populations of many wild species.

But another major reason some people are seeing more wildlife is because of new housing developments in what was once wildlife habitat.

``The best tool we have to learn to live with wildlife is education,'' Martarano said.

Mann said she hopes to set up a program in the Thousand Oaks area in November or December.

Eric Leach, [phone]

eric.leach(at)dailynews.com

STAY INFORMED

Information and schedules on the Mountain Lion Foundation and ``On the Edge'' are available on the Internet at www.mountainlion.org. Information on living with wildlife and the ``Keep Me Wild'' program of the California Department of Fish and Game is available at www.dfg.ca.gov.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 3; 1 -- 2 -- ran in Simi and SAC editions only; 3 -- ran in Simi edition only) At left, a mountain lion with eye injuries is shown to participants at an ``On the Edge'' session earlier this month in Simi Valley. Above, a barn owl peers out at the corwd. Kids, below, sit on the floor to watch the animals in the wildlife presentation.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

Box:

(ran in Simi and SAC editions only) STAY INFORMED (see text)