Clinton Creek rancher Jimmy Cuneo turns out his goats on a recent evening. Cuneo's use of a pair of Great Pyrenees guard dogs has reduced what had been heavy depredation of his flock by mountain lions and coyotes. Photo by: Roger Phelps

With a reported lion attack June 3 on a domestic goat near Drytown, it may be safe to say that Amador County goats, as they are each spring, have been placed near the top of the menu for the area's numerous big cats.

During the 2000s, Amador has ranked in the top 10 California counties in depredation permits issued on cougars, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

"I heard people talking about it," said resident Don Tiseraud. "A goat was attacked, and the lion hung itself up on a fence."

By all odds, this season should not replicate some of the most contentious past battle years for goat keepers.

For one thing, although probably not because of lion predation, the total number of head of goats dropped by fully a third between 2007 and 2008 in the county, offering what is now a smaller target population, according to figures from the Agricultural Commissioner's office. The goat population dropped from 1,475 to 1,075 during that time. That does not count pygmy goats.

During the last part of the 20th century, keepers of meat goats and Angora goats locally were forced to learn a lesson - the hard way, said Clinton Creek-area rancher Jimmy Cuneo.

"When I was a kid, we had 1,000 head," Cuneo said. "We learned management. For years, we blamed coyotes. We didn't believe there were lions here. Over the years, I've lost a lot of goats - some years, it could have been 100."

According to Cuneo's account, it would seem possible that the big cats are not only numerous in Amador, but are even becoming cramped for natural range territory. He quoted a remarkable number of forced lion kills in the Clinton Creek area alone.

"I've kept track of the lions we've had killed," he said. "Since 1985, it's 78. For awhile there, it was 10 per year."

The dozens of ravening cougars were hunted and killed legally near Clinton Creek under depredation permits from Fish and Game.

The agency's North Central District is all too aware of the livestock predation situation in Amador said Kyle Orr, department spokesman. In fact, apart from plentiful deer, goats are one of the more prominent targets for cougars in the county, according to Orr.

"It's very common - they are known to take goats," he said.

Cuneo said his worries seemed only likely to worsen until he learned to trust skilled guard dogs.

"I never knew what a guard dog does," Cuneo said. "My favorite breed is the Great Pyrenees."

The Pyrenees is quite large, but is affable-enough looking. Cuneo said the dog's loyalty to its charges is the reason he rates the breed highest.

"The best way to train is to get them as pups, turn them out with the goats and don't pet them - just ignore them," Cuneo said. "They'll think more of the goats than they will of you."

Research around the state by California Animal Damage Control officials has shown that domestic, non-guarding dogs are responsible for significantly more small-livestock deaths than are cougars. Cuneo's guard dogs seem to know this.

"If any of the (other) dogs starts playing too rough around the goats, she'll get over him and drop her weight down and pin him," Cuneo said.

Prop. 117, the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990 stopped the sport hunting of mountain lions. However, a study by University of Idaho lion researcher Maurice Hornocker found that the lion's territoriality made the species' numbers comparatively self-limiting and that no population explosion occurred.

Perhaps because of wide adoption of the guard-dog method, kills of depredating mountain lions in recent years have dropped in Amador, according to Fish and Game.

"In 2008, there were nine permits issued in Amador, and two lions taken," Orr said.

Cuneo praised Fish and Game for everything but their occasionally hampering regulations - a depredation must be proved with a carcass bearing verifiable lion-attack earmarks - and an occasional lack of speed in arriving to hunt a livestock-killing lion.

"I have to track it right away, so the scent won't go cold," he said.