First, there are probably more mountain lions in the continental United States now than before European settlement (more than 31,000, by one recent estimate). The resurgence began in the 1960s, when several western states, where mountain lion populations had been reduced but never wiped out, changed the legal status of the cats from varmint to big game, with limited or no hunting.
The number of mountain lions, as a result, began to exceed the carrying capacity of the land, especially in the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado and in the Black Hills of western South Dakota. Young males were forced -- on penalty of death, imposed by highly territorial older males -- to go forth and establish new territory, wildlife biologists say.
This cat was killed on an Iowa road in 2001, marking a return of the animals.
(Ed Weiner -- Iowa Department Of Natural Resources)
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Second, there are more white-tailed deer in the United States than before European settlement (estimates now range from 20 million to 33 million), with huge and increasingly unhunted populations in rural and suburban areas east of the Mississippi. The regrowth of eastern forests offers cover for deer, and succulent suburban shrubbery offers year-round food.
Young male mountain lions -- called "dispersers" by scientists -- seem to be following their appetites east. Moving along wooded river corridors, they can travel 50 to 100 miles in a night. They swim well; several appear to have crossed the Mississippi. One radio-collared male from western South Dakota was hit by a train this summer near the Kansas-Oklahoma border, having traveled an estimated 950 miles.
The inexorable result of this dispersal, according to Paul Beier, a professor of wildlife ecology at Northern Arizona University and an authority on mountain lion interaction with human beings, will be increasing conflict between cats and people.
Beier said these conflicts, commonplace in Rocky Mountain cities such as Boulder, Colo., and Bozeman, Mont., are beginning to occur in the Midwest and can be expected soon in the deer-infested suburbs of the East Coast.
"Dispersers are going to keep moving east," Beier said. "Most will die quickly, killed on highways, but there are going to be a couple who will hang on long enough to kill somebody in a back yard. I suspect it will be on the order of one human every 10 years. We do know it will be more than a non-zero risk. When people and cats share the same land space, somebody is going to be bit sooner or later."
It is exceedingly rare for a mountain lion to kill a human being. In the past 110 years, the cats have attacked 66 people and killed 18 in the United States and Canada, according to figures compiled by Iowa's Department of Natural Resources. Fatal attacks are far less common than fatal bee stings or lightning strikes.
But the annual rate of mountain lion attacks has increased sharply since 1970, from one to four attacks a year, and more than half of the known fatalities have occurred since 1990. As David Baron documented in "The Beast in the Garden," his book about mountain lions in Boulder, the trend is clear: As wildlife invade suburbs, mountain lions are increasingly accustomed to living around and stalking people.
"Lion attacks and close encounters have become a recurrent fact of life" in parts of Colorado, Baron writes.
Beier, the wildlife ecologist, says many westerners are aware that the cats pose some personal risk but they are willing to accept it.
"We are enormously more tolerant toward predators in this country than we used to be," Beier said. "It is part of a major sea change in the way Americans value wildlife."
That tolerance, however, does not seem to be in generous supply in Iowa and much of the Midwest. The comeback of the cats in Iowa has not prompted the state legislature to protect mountain lions or to categorize them as game animals.
They remain varmints, unprotected by any law, and Iowans can shoot them at their leisure.
At the mountain lion briefing here, Andrews instructed Iowans on what to do if they have a close encounter with a cat and do not have a gun. Raise your hands and try to "appear large and threatening," he said, adding that if the animal attacks, it is often useful to "fight back vigorously."
The cats like to kill by biting prey in the back of the neck, so it is not useful to run.
After explaining this to the silent, wide-eyed farmers, Andrews said: "Don't be held hostage. Continue to enjoy the outdoors."
