When Vicki Long visited California's Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority to find out what it was doing to protect the mountain lion, her favorite cat, from land development, she decided the answer was "not enough." And while she had read every study she could get her hands on as part of her life-long fascination with the mountain lion, also known as the cougar - Long helped gather nearly 700,000 signatures for a California proposition in 1990 that banned trophy hunting of the species - she soon realized she needed to bring in an expert with hard evidence to advocate for the cause.
After several calls, Long found Rick Hopkins, a wildlife biologist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and 30 years of experience working with mountain lions. "He was just right for what we needed," she says. According to Hopkins, owner of the ecological consulting firm ...
