Trish Carney for the Felidae Conservation Fund

A wild puma in January in the Santa Cruz field study area for the Bay Area Puma Project

In the early morning of Aug. 31, a young mountain lion took an ill-fated walk through North Berkeley. The police shot it dead after it was first spotted in the parking lot of a shuttered pharmacy, just down the street from the legendary dining spot Chez Panisse.

How the cougar ended up in the center of foodie civilization has remained a mystery, but a necropsy performed by the California Department of Fish and Game provides clues. The mountain lion was a healthy male, about 2 years old, leading wildlife experts to theorize that it was on the prowl for new territory, away from older rivals in the East Bay Hills.

“This animal just happened to be unlucky, and someone saw it before it could get back to the open space,” said Chris Wilmers, an assistant professor in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The cat, which was mourned for weeks — a memorial was dismantled last week — is the most prominent example of what has turned into an abundant season for Bay Area creature-sightings, including cougars, great white sharks and even a 50-foot whale that washed up this month at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

Mountain lions have been spotted recently in residential areas of Burlingame, San Carlos, San Anselmo and, for two straight mornings last week, atop a ridge near Pescadero Elementary School. On Aug. 14, a great white shark flipped a kayak off Pigeon Point in San Mateo County but left its occupant with only a cut.

Another great white was seen devouring a sea lion last month just beyond the surf line in Pacifica, prompting beachgoers to call 911.

Wildlife experts say there are good explanations for the increased sightings of such predators in more populated spots.

As housing, roads and recreational activity extend into traditional animal habitats, people and pumas are increasingly sharing the same space. And sightings — some real, some imagined — increase as people become aware that the cats are out there, wildlife experts said.

“The number of sightings is probably less related to how many animals are out there and more related to people’s sensitivity to it,” said John Krause, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game.

In the case of the mountain lions, it is unlikely that the local population is growing, wildlife experts say. State wildlife officials estimate there are 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions in California, but are unsure how many roam the Bay Area. There have been 12 verified attacks on humans by mountain lions in California since 1986, according to the game department.

 Meanwhile, local sightings of great white sharks have also increased.

There have been 102 unprovoked great white attacks on humans in California since 1952, said John McCosker, the chairman of aquatic biology at the California Academy of Sciences, who maintains the running count.

Great white attacks occur most frequently in August, September and October, when the sharks are most abundant here — and, coincidentally, when the surfing season also begins to pick up with larger waves.

Shark experts say there may, in fact, be more great whites out there. Sea lions and elephant seals that they commonly prey upon have been protected since the ’70s, helping the sharks, which are also protected, rebound.

One piece of good news for California bathers: the number of attacks on humans by great whites is holding steady at two or three a year.

“There may be an increase in white sharks, but the number of attacks on humans has not changed,” McCosker said.

This article also appears in the Bay Area edition of The New York Times.