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January 06, 2003
'He was over 100 pounds. Not big for a person, but big for a cat.'
By Lisa Faught, Pasadena Star News Staff Writer
MONROVIA -- A mountain lion trapped in a tree along the Foothill (210) Freeway loped through a back yard and hopped two fences before collapsing from tranquilizers in a yard on Fig Avenue Monday afternoon, officials said.
A delivery man making a stop on Central Avenue apparently spotted the mountain lion in a tree, on a branch just 8 feet off the ground, said Lt. Steve Cofield of the Monrovia Police Department.
Department of Fish and Game officers shot the mountain lion with a tranquilizer dart, waited for the drugs to kick in, then drove the sleeping animal far into the wilderness, he said.
"He kind of hopped down, looked around a bit and jumped over a fence. We tracked him from a distance until he laid down. "He was over 100 pounds. Not big for a person, but big for a cat.'
Police told neighbors to stay in their houses, but did not evacuate the mostly residential street, Cofield said. No one was injured in the incident.
Oscar Ramirez, 14, had just returned home when police knocked on the door and told him to stay inside. He said he could see the mountain lion from a window.
"I thought it was going to be a little one, but it was huge, like a tiger,' Ramirez said.
Officials speculate that the mountain lion became disoriented by the wind sometime Sunday night and wandered through the darkness to the freeway way off course for the usual wildlife sightings.
The mountain lion was roosting in a tree in the front yard of a house on Central Avenue just north of the freeway, at least two miles from the foothills.
"This is a scary one. It was right in the middle of the city,' city spokesman Dick Singer said.
Monrovia is known more for its bears than its mountain lions, but this is the second one to wander into the city in the last year.
The first was last May, when a mountain lion lurking in a back yard in the foothill neighborhood of El Nido Avenue was shot and killed by Department of Fish and Game officers.
Although officials said the cat was impossible to tag with a tranquilizer dart at the time, the killing sparked a local outcry.
But this time the mountain lion was an easy target, Cofield said.
"Last time was different,' Cofield said. "The animal was injured and stuck in a fence, with heavy, heavy bamboo behind it. There was nothing we could do. This one was sprawled out in a tree, so it was easy to dart it. This is exactly what we want to do.'
-- Lisa Faught can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by e-mail at lisa.faught@sgvn.com.
'He was over 100 pounds. Not big for a person, but big for a cat.'
By Lisa Faught, Pasadena Star News Staff Writer
MONROVIA -- A mountain lion trapped in a tree along the Foothill (210) Freeway loped through a back yard and hopped two fences before collapsing from tranquilizers in a yard on Fig Avenue Monday afternoon, officials said.
A delivery man making a stop on Central Avenue apparently spotted the mountain lion in a tree, on a branch just 8 feet off the ground, said Lt. Steve Cofield of the Monrovia Police Department.
Department of Fish and Game officers shot the mountain lion with a tranquilizer dart, waited for the drugs to kick in, then drove the sleeping animal far into the wilderness, he said.
"He kind of hopped down, looked around a bit and jumped over a fence. We tracked him from a distance until he laid down. "He was over 100 pounds. Not big for a person, but big for a cat.'
Police told neighbors to stay in their houses, but did not evacuate the mostly residential street, Cofield said. No one was injured in the incident.
Oscar Ramirez, 14, had just returned home when police knocked on the door and told him to stay inside. He said he could see the mountain lion from a window.
"I thought it was going to be a little one, but it was huge, like a tiger,' Ramirez said.
Officials speculate that the mountain lion became disoriented by the wind sometime Sunday night and wandered through the darkness to the freeway way off course for the usual wildlife sightings.
The mountain lion was roosting in a tree in the front yard of a house on Central Avenue just north of the freeway, at least two miles from the foothills.
"This is a scary one. It was right in the middle of the city,' city spokesman Dick Singer said.
Monrovia is known more for its bears than its mountain lions, but this is the second one to wander into the city in the last year.
The first was last May, when a mountain lion lurking in a back yard in the foothill neighborhood of El Nido Avenue was shot and killed by Department of Fish and Game officers.
Although officials said the cat was impossible to tag with a tranquilizer dart at the time, the killing sparked a local outcry.
But this time the mountain lion was an easy target, Cofield said.
"Last time was different,' Cofield said. "The animal was injured and stuck in a fence, with heavy, heavy bamboo behind it. There was nothing we could do. This one was sprawled out in a tree, so it was easy to dart it. This is exactly what we want to do.'
-- Lisa Faught can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by e-mail at lisa.faught@sgvn.com.
