by Stuart Gibbs
Stephanie Winger was saying something nice about J.J. and his commitment to the environment, but it appeared most people were already losing interest in the presentation. We were all wilting in the heat. I felt bad for Pete Thwacker; in addition to dealing with the small crowds, he also had to wear a three-piece suit.
“They should have done this ceremony in the Polar Pavilion,” Dash whispered to me.
“This ceremony doesn’t have anything to do with the Polar Pavilion,” I whispered back.
“Who cares?” Dash grumbled. “It’s air-conditioned.”
The Polar Pavilion had been even more crowded than usual lately. The fish cannon had been a bigger hit than expected. So many people were crowding the penguin feeding times that J.J. had asked Sanjay Budhiraja to think of other places a cannon could be used at FunJungle. A new Zoom was going to be unleashed at the sea lion pool within the next month, and using one to fire raw meat into the carnivore exhibits was under consideration.
Doc climbed up into the bed of the pickup. The young vet who had driven the truck posted herself nearby with a sedation rifle.
I knew Rocket was in the shipping crate, though most other people didn’t. Of course, Pete had wanted Doc to make the release of the lion closer to the podium, where the news crews could film it. Doc had refused, claiming the crowd would make Rocket skittish. “You don’t want a reporter getting mauled on live television, do you?” he’d asked.
Pete had turned greenish at the thought of this and decided it was a bad idea.
Rocket wouldn’t really have attacked anyone, but I could definitely understand her being on guard around people, given how she’d been treated by them lately.
“Sadly, this park alone won’t guarantee the lion’s safety,” Stephanie Winger was saying. “Lions need room to roam, and wildlife corridors to connect those areas. If we keep carving up the wilderness, we might as well be stranding these animals on separate islands and condemning them to extinction. But at the very least, this is a start. A good-size refuge is far better than no refuge at all. So, without any further ado, I would like to officially consecrate the Summer McCracken Wildlife Refuge.”
Everyone broke into applause, louder this time, as we were excited for this moment—and pleased that the ceremony was almost over.
Summer wasn’t clapping. Instead, she sat in her chair, stunned by the name of the refuge, which had been a secret until now.
That had been my idea. I had suggested it to J.J. at dinner one night, while Summer was in the bathroom. Up until then, J.J. had been thinking about simply naming it the McCracken Wildlife Refuge. “That kind of sounds like it was named after you,” I had argued. “It was Summer’s idea. You should name it after her.”
“That’s a wonderful suggestion,” Kandace had said, and after that, there was no way J.J. could argue against it. Not that he would have. He seemed to like the idea anyhow.
Now, on the stage, Summer leaped to her feet and hugged her parents. Then J.J. escorted her to a ceremonial ribbon that had been strung between two trees at the edge of the parking lot.
In the truck, fifty yards away, with far less ceremony, Doc lifted the hatch on the shipping crate.
A few seconds passed, and then Rocket sprang out off the back of the truck.
It happened so fast no one else but my parents even seemed to notice it. Rocket was merely a blur of tawny fur.
While Summer cut the ceremonial ribbon, the big cat raced into the forest and vanished from sight.
Rocket Is Not the Only Mountain Lion in Danger!
Habitat loss is a threat to mountain lions throughout their range. In fact, habitat loss is the single greatest threat to animals all over the earth. Wherever there are humans, animal populations are losing ground to cities, towns, and farms, and the more we expand into their territory, the greater potential there is for human/wildlife conflict. As the human population keeps growing on earth, the issues of habitat loss and human/wildlife conflict are only going to get worse.
At first, this might seem to be an unsolvable problem: After all, we humans need places to live and food to eat. But there are still things that you can do.
At the most basic level, be aware that you are sharing this planet with other creatures. Even in our biggest cities, there are still wild animals. You can take care to reduce the potential for human/wildlife conflict around your home by not leaving food out where raccoons or opossums can get into it, or not letting your cat run free so that it kills local birds. (A Smithsonian study estimates that outdoor cats kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds a year.) If you’re venturing into the wilderness, be prepared for the possibility of running into wild animals and learn what to do when that happens. (And please, if you’re hiking in mountain lion territory, don’t let your dog off leash.)
On the larger scale, many organizations are working to develop ways for us to live in harmony with animals. My friends at the World Wildlife Fund are developing ways to keep elephants from destroying crops in Asia and Africa, and to keep polar bears from raiding garbage dumps in the Arctic. Meanwhile, the fine folks at the Nature Conservancy are buying land to set it aside for threatened animals. If your community is building new roads and schools, you can get involved and pressure your leaders to make sure that they are providing wildlife corridors to allow animals to still move about with as little human contact as possible. Because habitat loss is occurring everywhere, there is no single solution to the problem—but that just means that anyone, anywhere, might have an idea that helps. Even you!
Check out the WWF at wwf.panda.org or the Nature Conservancy at nature.org to learn more about these issues and what you can do to protect wildlife and have a positive impact on the natural world!
Acknowledgments
With this book, I set a record for the number of people who helped me do research. I am hugely indebted to the following people:
Seth Riley from the National Park Service, who tracks and studies mountain lions in Southern California, and who taught me all about these amazing animals, how they come into conflict with humans, and what we can do to prevent it.
John Lewis, Connie Morgan, Candace Sclimenti, Mike Bona, and Joshua Sisk at the Los Angeles Zoo, who showed me around behind the scenes and answered all my questions, no matter how bizarre they were (particularly the questions about giraffe vomit).
Linda Henry from SeaWorld, who was a font of information about penguins.
Steve Jeffries, the California manager for Garden State Fireworks, who taught me how all those amazing displays work.
Jay Sonbolian, Katy Henry, and Amanda Prager, who connected me to the fine folks I just mentioned.
Barney Long, Nilanga Jayasinghe, and Giavanna Grien, who do incredible work in species conservation for the World Wildlife Fund, and who are coming up with and implementing brilliant ways to counter human-wildlife conflict around the world.
And my wife’s dear friend, Todd Deligan, the co-inventor of the fish cannon (yes, it really exists!) and former vice president of Whooshh, which manufactures said cannons (yes, that’s really the name!).
Then there are the amazing people who have made these books happen in the first place:
Liz Kossnar, my excellent editor; Justin Chanda, my enthusiastic publisher; and Lucy Cummins, the greatest cover designer on earth.
Jennifer Joel, agent extraordinaire, and her clever niece Lexington Satnick, who came up with the title for this book.
Rose Brock, my study-guide guru and occasional interviewer; Sarah Mlynowski, the fairy godmother of festivals; and James Ponti, the funniest fellow author anyone could ever tour with.
And all the amazing, devoted librarians, book store owners, and store employees who have promoted my books over the years.
Finally, there’s my family:
My parents, Ronald and Jane, who have supported my desire to write throughout my life.
My sister, Suz; my brother-in-law, Darragh; and my niece, Ciara, who are my biggest cheerleaders.
My late wife, Suzanne, who always supported everything I did.
And last but certainly not least, my children, Dashiell and Violet, who give me ideas, help me edit, and provide the best sounding board any author could ever ask for. I love you!
About the Author
STUART GIBBS is the New York Times bestselling author of the FunJungle, Moon Base Alpha, and Spy School series. He has also written screenplays for movies, worked on a whole bunch of animated films, developed TV shows, and researched capybaras (the world’s largest rodents). Stuart lives with his family in Los Angeles. You can learn more about what he’s up to at stuartgibbs.com.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Stuart-Gibbs
Simon & Schuster Book for Young Readers
Simon & Schuster, New York
Visit SimonandSchuster.net for a free downloadable curriculum guide.
Also by Stuart Gibbs
The FunJungle series
Belly Up
Poached
Big Game
Panda-monium
The Spy School series
Spy School
Spy Camp
Evil Spy School
Spy Ski School
Spy School Secret Service
Spy School Goes South
The Moon Base Alpha series
Space Case
Spaced Out
Waste of Space
The Last Musketeer
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2019 by Stuart Gibbs
Jacket design and principal illustration by Lucy Ruth Cummins, copyright © 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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Interior design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gibbs, Stuart, 1969– author.
Title: Lion down / Stuart Gibbs.
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2019] | Series: FunJungle | Summary: Thirteen-year-old Teddy Fitzroy and his girlfriend, Summer, investigate when a mountain lion is accused of killing a prized dog outside of FunJungle Wild Animal Park in the Texas Hill Country.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017060160 | ISBN 9781534424739 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534424753 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | Zoos—Fiction. | Zoo animals—Fiction. | Puma—Fiction. | Endangered species—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.G339236 Lio 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017060160
