Mountain lion concerns continue in Placer County, forcing one man to sell off his herd following a recent attack on his sheep. But a new study aims to give ranchers like him some hope. 

The pasture next to Ryan Krauss's home in Loomis, once filled with sheep, is now empty after a series of coyote attacks and, most recently, the loss of one of his sheep, killed by a mountain lion. 

"You know, you don't forget that when you see it, and for us, our sheep are our livelihood," Krauss said. 

Dr. Julie Young, an associate professor at Utah State University, is leading a study looking into non-lethal ways to keep livestock safe. 

"Our aim is to help livestock owners," Dr. Young said. 

The study focuses on six counties in Northern California with the highest number of permit requests to kill cougars. Those counties include El Dorado, Calaveras, Amador, Nevada, Placer, and Sierra. 

"This is such a hotspot that we really want to get in there and help solve this problem," Dr. Young said. 

Their goal is to work with up to 90 ranchers and livestock owners, implementing one of four different hazing techniques including turbo fladry, which are colorful flags that have been shown to keep predators away with hotwire fencing; opaque fencing to keep livestock hidden; flashing lights and sounds triggered by motion sensors; and hounds to haze the cats if they've already killed an animal. 

All of these techniques have been successful against bears and wolves but have never been studied against mountain lions. 

"We hope that they change their behavior where they will no longer kill livestock but go away and eat wild things like what they should be eating," Dr. Young said. 

Researchers will use cameras to track which techniques are working and which aren't. 

Source - https://www.cbsnews.com