Hugh,
Here’s an interesting article about what happens when people and wild predators inhabit the same area. One detail jumped out at me– how the current estimated deer population in the entire state is 445,000. To put this in the perspective of the mall ninjas who plan to “head out into the wild and hunt for my food”:
The average de-boned meat weight of an adult mule deer is less than 80 lbs. The human population of California is 38,800,000. Finding, killing, and butchering every deer in the entire state would provide less than 1 pound of meat per person. What are you going to eat tomorrow? Or, if you keep your whole deer for yourself, how are you going to keep your neighbor from taking it away from you to feed his hungry kids? And, with all the deer gone, what are all the mountain lions going to eat tomorrow? – T.B.