Kate Remsen of All Hands Ecology Presents "Living With Lions"
Our speaker for February 26, 2026, was Kate Remsen of All Hands Ecology. Kate is the Trail Project Manager for All Hands’ Mountain Lion Project. Kate works in community outreach, engagement, and mountain lion research. Her background includes film and television production and a 9-chapter docuseries on mountain lions with UC Davis’s Wildlife Health Center.
Kate’s job includes placing and managing trail cameras on private properties in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys (and expanding to Marin and Lake Counties) and analyzing the data provided by the project. All Hands locates, humanely captures, and equips lions with GPS collars. The data provided by location information from the collars, biological measurements and samples, and trail cameras is used for a variety of purposes, including the identification of lions’ priority habitats, wildlife corridors, the promotion of ecosystem conservation, and education. 10,000 years ago North America hosted a very large lion, known as the American Lion. This lion was significantly larger than even modern African lions. Mountain lions, also known as pumas, panthers, and cougars, were likely prey for these American Lions, which may explain mountain lions’ extreme illusiveness.
Mountain lions are now America’s apex predator. The largest mountain lion they’ve encountered weighed 130 lbs. Their favorite food is deer, and they also eat wild boar, domestic cats, livestock, and coyotes, among other things. They are amazing jumpers, so fences don’t stop them from attacking livestock unless the livestock is in lion-proof enclosures or behind shade cloth. Males can have a range of 200 miles and come in contact with lots of people. Mountain lions can live up to 16 years, although this is very rare. In general, mountain lions try to avoid people and are chill unless agitated; you are generally ok if you encounter one unless you notice agitation or aggression and in that case try not to exhibit fear and fight back.
Thank you, Kate, for this excellent presentation of your project and for giving us all the fun information about mountain lions!
