A normally very elusive predator was spotted prowling through a Southern California town for a week until it struck gold in the form of a makeshift turkey coop behind a private home, officials said.
Homeowners were shocked to find a mountain lion in the shed behind their house on Saturday, April 27, the city of Hesperia said on Facebook.
The city is about a 35-mile drive north from San Bernardino, a suburb of Los Angeles. It’s just north of both the Angeles and San Bernardino national forests.
A photo shows the mountain lion looking directly at the camera from inside the coop with nothing but a seemingly empty bag of scratch feed between them.
“Such a beautiful cat,” someone said in comments on the Facebook post. “(Although) had to be terrifying to see him up close.”
Police arrived first and locked the mountain lion in the shed until a wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife showed up, Kevin Howells told McClatchy News. Howells is a human-wildlife conflict biologist for the department’s inland deserts region south.
“In predator habitat you have to have your livestock secured,” he said. “It happens every day in the state of California … if there is an attractant and it’s unsecured within that animal’s habitat range, they can and will exploit it. The mountain lion wouldn’t have gotten in if the door was locked. Securing livestock greatly reduces the chance of human-wildlife conflict.”
Howells initially determined it would be best to release the mountain lion and haze it away from the home so it could find its way back to its habitat under the safe cover of darkness. But the mountain lion was so afraid, officials couldn’t coax it from the coop, he said.
Because of a report that the mountain lion might be injured, Howells and his team decided to return in the morning to tranquilize it and have the department’s veterinarians assess it.
The 110- to 120-pound adult male was healthy, so officials tagged its ear, outfitted it with a GPS collar and released it in a nearby suitable habitat, Howells said.
Officials believe it’s likely the same mountain lion spotted prowling through town earlier in the week.
Hesperia officials warned residents about the mountain lion sightings in the southwest area of the city on April 22.
“While there is no cause for alarm, we urge everyone to exercise caution when outdoors, especially during dawn and dusk, when mountain lions are most active,” the city said on Facebook.
What to do if you see a mountain lion
Mountain lions are typically “calm, quiet and elusive,” according to the National Park Service. While attacks involving mountain lions are rare, they are possible.
“Even so, the potential for being killed or injured by a mountain lion is quite low compared to many other natural hazards,” the National Park Service said on its website. “There is a far greater risk, for example, of being killed in an automobile accident with a deer than of being attacked by a mountain lion.”
Officials said there are some things you can do to prevent a mountain lion encounter from becoming an attack.
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Stay calm and back away slowly.
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Face the lion and stand up straight.
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Don’t approach a mountain lion, especially if it’s with kittens.
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Don’t run. It could stimulate a mountain lion’s chase instincts.
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Pick up small children so they don’t panic or run away.
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Don’t bend over or crouch down.
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Throw things at the mountain lion if it continues to move toward you.
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If the mountain lion attacks, fight back using anything around you.
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Report all sightings, encounters or attacks to local park rangers or law enforcement.
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