Woopsies! One Young Mountain Lion Picked the Wrong Escape Route
Woopsies! There was a young mountain lion planning a great escape through San Francisco’s Outer Sunset until the neighborhood, city officials, wildlife teams and nearby San Francisco Zoo staff all stepped in to control the sitch at hand.
The big cat turned up Friday morning near 44th Avenue and Ulloa Street, only a couple of blocks from the San Francisco Zoo. Police established a perimeter, residents were told to stay back and teams from San Francisco Animal Care & Control, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the zoo worked together as the mountain lion tucked himself into the residential landscape and refused to make things easy.
Then came the spectacular part caught on video. After being hit with a tranquilizer dart, the lion made a break for it, sprinting away as responders cleared people from the area and waited for the medication to take effect. CBS News Bay Area reporter Drew Andre was on scene as the whole great-escape attempt unfolded.
wildlife
A wild morning in San Francisco.
One young mountain lion turned an Outer Sunset block into a full wildlife response before getting a safe ride back to proper puma territory.
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Thankfully, this story did not end with the cat stuck in the city. Officials safely sedated and removed him before wildlife staff gave him a quick health assessment. The verdict: a healthy young male estimated to be 2 to 3 years old and weighing about 78 pounds.
San Francisco Animal Care & Control summed up his misadventure perfectly, describing him as a small young lion who had been out exploring and “got himself in a predicament in a busy neighborhood.” Fair. Very fair.
Images: CBS News Bay Area / KPIX video.
Before he went back home, researchers with the Santa Cruz Puma Project fitted him with a satellite GPS tracking collar. The long-running project, a partnership involving UC Santa Cruz and California wildlife researchers, uses those collars to study how mountain lions move, behave and navigate increasingly fragmented habitat around the Santa Cruz Mountains.
California wildlife officials believe this little explorer was likely a dispersing juvenile looking for territory of his own — a normal but difficult chapter for young male mountain lions, especially when existing adult males already occupy huge ranges and highways and cities chop up the routes between wild spaces.
By Friday afternoon, the great escape finally got a proper ending: he was released into wild habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, now carrying a tracking collar that may help researchers learn a lot more about where he goes next.
Officials have not confirmed whether this was the same mountain lion spotted around San Francisco’s Panhandle earlier in September. Either way, this particular city excursion ended about as well as one could hope — residents safe, mountain lion safe, and one very confused kitty back where there are considerably fewer front yards.
Now click play on the spectacular footage below and dig out the exact moment the young lion decides he has absolutely had enough of this particular neighborhood meeting.
Watch the Outer Sunset Mountain Lion Make a Break for It
CBS News Bay Area’s report captures the tense San Francisco response as the tranquilized mountain lion bolts from responders before being safely captured.
Source: CBS News Bay Area; San Francisco Animal Care & Control; California Department of Fish and Wildlife; Santa Cruz Puma Project.
