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SHERIDAN, Wyo. – Retired orthopedic surgeon Chris Smith thought his hunt was over when he bagged a white tail deer with a bow and arrow near Sheridan. Because the light was fading, he decided to return the next day to recover the deer. But when he returned Wednesday morning, the carcass had been covered by grass and bush — which is what mountain lions typically do. Smith, who was unarmed, then saw the big cat about 25 yards away.....

Eagan police issued a warning Monday to alert residents of evidence of cougars in the area. Police said, last month officers found what appeared to be cougar feces at the police gun range located at the west end of Yankee Doodle Road near Fort Snelling State Park. Police said they took two reports from residents who said they saw a cougar in the same area. A third sighting was reported by a city employee. On October 2, he saw what he believed was a cougar laying in some grass in Blackhawk Park off Murphy Parkway. Police warned residents to always...

There have been 14 serious mountain lion attacks in California, three of which ended in death, in the past 23 years. The three people killed were Barbara Schoener, 40, a wife and mother of two children; Iris Kenna, 56, a high school counselor; and Mark Reynolds, 35, a bicycling enthusiast. Among the injured were a 5-year-old girl who lost an eye and was partially paralyzed; Anne Hjelle, 30, a former U.S. Marine and physical fitness instructor; and Jim Hamm, 70, a retiree living in Humboldt County. It’s amazing how folks can distort figures. In researching this column, I went to...

A series of unusual accounts last week show that black panthers and bears are becoming more legend than mystery in the Bay Area. Lynn Reed, a ranch owner, avid hunter and wildlife expert, said he and his wife watched what appeared to be a black mountain lion for more than 10 minutes in the foothills near Dublin in Alameda County. The next day, another one was seen by an engineer in the nearby San Ramon hills. Reed's 10-minute sighting is the longest, eye-witness account of a black mountain lion reported by a wildlife expert in 20 years. It is similar...

BILLINGS, Mont. — Wildlife officials are trying to determine why a mountain lion attacked a Colorado man who says he used a chain saw to fight off the animal during a camping trip with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.

At first Stewart Loew was excited by the sight: a mountain lion on the family's farm near Amado. In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago. But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm's petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared. Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the...

A mountain lion was spotted in a hotel parking lot just off of I-25 in Del Camino in Weld County, and four animals were decapitated on a nearby property, authorities said. A six-foot long mountain lion was seen at about 11 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a Quality Inn, near the 10000 block of the West I-25 frontage road, according to a media release from the Weld County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's deputies and officers with the Firestone and Frederick police department's searched for the big cat but did not find it. On Monday a resident in the 9000...

Canadian mother Maureen Lee has fought off a cougar that leapt onto her daughter during a walk in the woods with her bare hands. Seeing her child pinned she dove between the two and threw the large cat off before scooping up her child and running. Her three-year-old daughter, who thought the animal just wanted to play, is recovering nicely from puncture wounds on her head and arm. The cougar fared less well - conservation officers located it and killed it.

A young mountain lion was trapped and relocated by the Colorado Division of Wildlife after eating a house cat Monday ... north Boulder. “He was just too close,” Churchill said. “We wanted to give him a spanking and move him out of town.” Wildlife officials previously tagged the same cougar in February when the kitten was stuck in a tree, Churchill said. He is part of the five-year Front Range Mountain Lion Study, which aims to track mountain lions between Lyons and Evergreen to better understand cougar movement trends and develop a way to mitigate aggressive behavior near human establishments,...

HEMET, Calif. (CBS) ― Size really doesn't matter, as a trio of Chihuahuas proved by cornering a full-grown, adult mountain lion in their owner's garage. Ana Lee Spray of Sage, near Hemet, heard her three Chihuahuas barking in her garage and went to check out commotion. Spray was surprised to see the massive, angry cat hissing at her and her dogs and immediately took her pets inside. Spray called 911 and officers from the Department of Fish and Game tranquilized the mountain lion. The big cat had to be tranquilized again after running from the garage.

HOLLISTER The county agriculture commissioner supports reinstatement of a long-absent mountain lion count and plans to request that supervisors endorse a letter to the state fish and game department encouraging California leaders to reconsider it. San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner Paul Matulich believes the state should reestablish a count because "nothing's been done since 1988" and there are concerns related to public safety, livestock security and a declining deer population. He plans to present the county board with a letter requesting a reinstatement to the lion count at its meeting May 26. Fish and game stopped conducting official cougar counts...

When a Corvallis teen came upon a cougar mauling a house cat on Northwest Sundance Circle last month, he probably didn't think, "Well, here's an Oregon success story." Once hunted nearly to extinction in Oregon, the big cats, which inspire awe in some and fear in others, are thriving today. And that presents its own problems. As their numbers increase, so do the chances for encounters such as the one at Sundance Circle. The state has responded by increasing the killing of cougars to reduce the threat, whether real or perceived, to livestock, game herds, people and their pets....

Dog owner William Morse, his wife Kandy and their dog Hogie were out for a walk along a trail in the Cleveland National Forest Tuesday when "out of nowhere a mountain lion just charged us, attacked us, and my dog saved our life, saved me and my wife's life." The black shepherd-mix dog, named Hogie, was severely injured in Tuesday's noon incident but was expected to recover following surgery at a Riverside County veterinary hospital. On Wednesday, state officials with the California Department of Fish and Game released statements that contradicted Morse’s accounts. In the new scenarios, Hogie was the...

    When a local couple heard their cats outside crying at about 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning, they thought it was probably a dog bothering their cats, but it wasn't. They were completely shocked at what they found in their yard. A huge mountain lion had made its way into the enclosure in which their cats were kept. The three cats didn’t stand a chance. The couple, who live near Crestline Video, asked not to be identified. They are heartbroken and in shock. “The mountain lion was probably 3-and-a-half to four feet long,” the woman said. “It looked...

A mountain lion attacked and nearly killed a dog that defended its owners Tuesday on a trail in the Santa Ana Mountains. The dog was severely mauled in the stomach area and rushed to a veterinary hospital for surgery, according to Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. The 5-year-old black Labrador mix named Hoagie underwent a four-hour operation and was expected to survive, he said. William Morse was hiking with his wife near a campground in the Cleveland National Forest, about 10 miles from Lake Elsinore, when a 120-pound mountain lion approached. "Out of nowhere, a mountain lion just charged...

A cougar lounging in the courtyard of a rural Santa Fe-area home ... Game warden Desi Ortiz says the animal showed no fear... He hit the 100-pound female mountain lion in the hind leg with a tranquilizer, and she jumped over the courtyard wall and disappeared. He got a call a short time later about a cougar staggering into the courtyard of another nearby home.

A mountain lion was tranquilized and relocated by the state Division of Wildlife after killing a small dog in Boulder's Highland Park ... The lion killed a "white, fluffy dog" ... Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said the lion, a 10-month-old male, was moved to a remote location. She said the lion had previously been tagged ... On Sunday, part of a Chautauqua Park trail was closed after hikers spotted a mountain lion in the trees...

A couple from Montana were riding the range, he with his rifle and she (fortunately) with her camera. Their dogs always followed them, but on this occasion, a Mountain Lion decided he wanted to stalk the dogs (you'll see the dogs in the background watching). Very, very bad decision. The hunter got off the mule with his rifle and decided to shoot in the air to scare away the lion, but before he could get off a shot, the lion charged in and decided he wanted a piece of those dogs. With that, the mule took off and decided HE...

SPOONER (AP) - There's been no sign of the mountain lion that game managers in northwestern Wisconsin tried to capture and collar last week. The mountain lion was photographed in a tree in the area of Washburn and Burnett counties west of Spooner before it crawled down and ran away. Jim Bishop of the state Department of Natural Resources said the animal is believed to be alive but may have left the area, or even headed to Minnesota. DNR personnel used some fresh snow to search for signs of the big cat on March 11. But wildlife biologist supervisor Ken...

Near a northwest Boulder home early Tuesday, wildlife officers fired non-lethal bean bags at an adult mountain lion that was feeding on a deer carcass -- adding to the growing list of sightings and animal attacks in the neighborhood in recent weeks. A woman had her Jack Russell terrier taken by a lion Dec. 24 outside her home ... residents down the road have reported a family of lions drinking at their backyard pond; and Colorado Division of Wildlife officers have fielded several reports of sightings in the neighborhood. Tuesday, they found two animal carcasses within a few blocks. "People...

Colorado Division of Wildlife officers are searching the Boulder area for a mountain lion that grabbed a couple's Jack Russell Terrier late Christmas Eve outside their home ... The owner had stepped outside with the small dog about 11 p.m. to take some garbage to the alley and told wildlife officers that she "got a creepy feeling," division spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. The woman ran back indoors, Churchill said, and accidentally left her dog outside. When the woman realized her pet wasn't with her, she got in her car, where she felt safer, and drove back into the alley with...

After letting their small dog out at 4 A.M. for a quick bathroom request, neighbors found their small dog had been attacked by a mountain lion or fox, but had escaped and managed to return to their back door. The dog required over 40 stitches but survived and no one could figure out how until a day or two later when the carcass of a fox was found a few hundred feet further back from the house. The fox had obviously been the meal of a mountain lion. The scenario then became clear. The fox had the dog until the...

When Scott Nobles returned home from tending to a sick horse, he and his fiancée were shocked to find one of the couple’s dogs badly hurt and bleeding, and the other dead. “I called the cops because I thought someone had shot my dog in the head, that’s how bad the damage was,” said Nobles, a deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Apple Valley station. He soon learned it was not a human that attacked his dogs. The attack took place... inside the couple’s back yard. “We heard the puppies whining and crying, but we couldn’t find the other...

Early last week a mountain lion snatched a family’s dog from their yard and killed it...in the Village of Oak Creek. The dog, approximately 12 pounds, was in the yard with the family’s other two dogs when the mountain lion attacked... Arizona Game and Fish Spokesman Zenon Mocarski said a game warden was called to the scene and determined the attacking animal was in fact a mountain lion. “It’s pretty easy to distinguish between a mountain lion and a coyote,” ... Since the attack... neighbor came over and told her to keep her children inside because the mountain lion was...

It was self defense. That’s what game and fish officials determined after a hunter shot a mountain lion north of Cokeville earlier this month. Adam Lancaster of Afton told the Wyoming game warden that he and his father were dressing out a buck mule deer they had killed when the lion moved in. Game and Fish officials say the lion was a sub-adult female apparently attracted by the smell of fresh meat – but they quickly add that such aggressive behavior toward humans is extremely rare. Lancaster told the warden the incident was over in seconds. The hunters left the...

One day last October, Eric York lugged the carcass of an adult mountain lion from his truck and laid it carefully on a tarp on the floor of his garage. The female mountain lion had a bloody nose, but her hide bore no other signs of trauma. York, a biologist at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, found the big cat lying motionless near the canyon’s South Rim. He was determined to learn why she died. Because the park lacks a forensics lab, he did the postmortem in his garage, in a village of about 2,000 park employees. Epidemic experts...

A mountain lion is chased up a tree in downtown Palo Alto. Another one is shot after mauling a Chihuahua at a Watsonville mobile home park. In Los Gatos, a lion hits a car while trying to cross Summit Road. Peninsula and Silicon Valley residents rarely ponder the lives of mountain lions trying to survive in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But urban development — the razing of habitat for homes, roads and parking lots — is the chief obstacle the wild cats face every day as they hunt for deer and fulfill their instinct to roam hundreds of miles, looking...

An animal tracker hired by city officials was heading into Foothills Park in Palo Alto tonight to hunt down and kill a mountain lion that attacked a man over the weekend, authorities said. Foothills Park and the adjacent Pearson-Arastradero Preserve were closed today after officials learned of the incident, the first known mountain lion attack in Palo Alto, said Palo Alto Police Agent Dan Ryan. The 50-year-old hiker was uninjured but narrowly escaped with his life after the cat leaped onto him from behind about 4 p.m. Saturday, sending man and beast tumbling down an embankment, Ryan said. The Portola...

People in the Silver City/Pinos Altos, New Mexico, vicinity are nervously looking over their shoulders these days, fearing they may be the next meal for a mountain lion prowling the area... On Friday, the body of Robert Nowojski, 55, was found about 75 yards from his Pinos Altos home, severely mauled and partly fed upon. The animal would not leave until Game and Fish officers shot at it. Although not yet confirmed with an autopsy, authorities suspect the lion is responsible for the fatal attack. Hunters with hounds are now tracking the animal. Several people reported sightings of the mountain...

Wyoming officials confirm fifth case of plague found in mountain lions Friday, June 6, 2008 4:51 PM MDT Mountain lion hunters, the owners of domestic cats and others who may come in contact with mountain lions in Wyoming and other Western states are urged to protect themselves and their animals against plague. “Plague was confirmed in a mountain lion found dead in mid-April by a landowner in rural Johnson County,” said Todd Cornish, an associate professor in the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture's Department of Veterinary Sciences. Cornish said this is the fifth case of plague confirmed in mountain...

Mountain Lions Stop By For A Drink

A mountain lion attacking a small animal was spotted by students living near Gerhart Hall on the Bethany University campus in Scotts Valley Monday night, the second such sighting in as many days... Students reported seeing the cougar on both Sunday and Monday nights... Students are also being advised to avoid jogging or walking alone during the early morning hours or at dusk to avoid coming into contact with a mountain lion.

NEAR WIMER, Ore. - Two girls got a scary close encounter with an aggressive cougar in southern Oregon over the weekend.According to the family, 8-year-old Gina Granacki and 6-year-old Annie Granacki were riding their bikes to their home near Wimer on Saturday to grab a sandwich when the older girl was approached by the animal.Gina quickly followed the instructions her parents and school teachers had taught her, putting the bike between her and the mountain lion and not running."...She knows you can't run from a cougar," her mother, DeAnna, told KDRV-TV in Medford. "They'll attack."Her younger sister ran to get help,...

A handful of mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California soon will wear high-tech collars as part of a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa   Cruz. The collars will reveal not only how these animals range within their sprawling  territories, but also how they hunt. The scientists aim to figure out ways to minimize conflicts between humans and mountain lions — also known as pumas and cougars. The collars combine Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology with an accelerometer, an electronic chip the size of a pinkie fingernail that measures acceleration and gravity....

Wildlife officers said they're looking for a mountain lion that was reported this morning peeking into the cafeteria window at the Boulder Community Hospital, 1100 Balsam Ave. Officers, who are searching in the area of west Mapleton Avenue, said they've not been able to locate the cat. The Mount Sanitas trailhead, which starts just west of the intersection of Fourth Street and Mapleton Avenue, has been temporarily closed while rangers scour the area for the animal. Tuesday, officers with the Colorado Division of Wildlife tranquilized a lion spotted napping under the porch of a home at 755 Pleasant St. That...

A mountain lion stirred up some excitement near Flatiron Elementary School... The 138-pound cat was shot once with a tranquilizer gun but then bolted ... At 10:30 a.m., the cat was shot with another tranquilizer dart ... Agents carried the cat to ...an Open Space park in west Boulder where it was released. Wildlife officers said the cat is about 2-years-old and known in the neighborhood. The same mountain lion was in the same neighborhood last week. In that incident, the mountain lion was tranquilized, but managed to run away. The cat also appears to have a high tolerance for...

Confronting Lion Was Breathtaking Experience. “I was walking this trail I had made, hunting for mushrooms, when I came across a deer carcass which hadn't been there before,” said Ron Olson... “I kind of looked around and didn't see anything. When I turned around, just to my left, there stood a mountain lion.” The lion sighting was officially confirmed Friday by officials from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. It is the state's first confirmed sighting in four years. About 90 minutes after they set up the camera, four shots were taken of the mountain lion eating on the carcass....

Finding strength in faith, Anne Hjelle is determined to recover after she was mauled while mountain biking in a wilderness park.A young woman walked into a restaurant last week and sat close enough to get a good look at Anne Hjelle's face. A mountain lion had torn off the left side four years before, leaving it hanging by a flap of skin. Six surgeries hadn't camouflaged the scars. "She saw me and had a deer-in-the-headlights look," said Hjelle, 35, of Mission Viejo. "She quickly got up and moved so she didn't have to look at me." The stranger's reaction didn't...

The video shot in Jack Foerschler’s barn shows his flock of sheep lying quietly in the dark... The flock seems peaceful, until the animals are suddenly startled. A nanosecond later, a blur leaps into the screen and tackles one of the sheep. The ewe is able to escape momentarily, jumping up from the creature’s clutches, running to the viewer’s left. But the invader is faster. It bounds to its feet and extends a claw toward its fleeing prey. The viewer can see its massive claws, slender muscular body and distinctively long tail. The culprit that killed four ewes, a ram...

Now, the predator powerful enough to take down a bull elk is lying helpless under a tent of fir trees while Maletzke replaces the batteries in her radio collar, checks her teeth and measures her girth. Jane is part of a healthy cougar population that lives in relative harmony with its human neighbors in the rapidly growing communities just east of Snoqualmie Pass. In the past six years, Jane has killed deer less than 50 paces from homes — yet residents don't even realize she's there. She has never harmed pets or livestock, nor have any of her offspring. The...

RAPID CITY -- A Rapid City man says he was attacked by a mountain lion. Ryan Hughes says he was ice fishing Saturday at Sheridan Lake, and a lion jumped him as he left the ice and stepped into the woods. Hughes says the lion had a fresh kill in its mouth. Before he could react, Hughes says the big cat jumped on top of him, knocking him on his back. Hughes says he put his hands in front of his face and started kicking wildly. The lion retreated, but it left the man with deep gashes on his arm,...

I have just returned from Ft. Drum, Florida, where the attack on the three year old occurred. He was attacked by an animal on December 6, 2007. The little boy was attacked when his mother went inside to use the restroom and asked Antony’s grandfather to go outside and watch the child for a few moments. This is not the first time a mountain lion has done this. In 2006, a boy was literally taken from his father's hands before the father could realize what was happening and get better hold on the child. Two weeks after the attack the...

In Florida, destroying, hiding, or otherwise making evidence unavailable is called “despoliation of evidence.” That’s legal-speak. Despoilation of evidence is illegal. The father of a student participant in an Everglades Institute project, Dr. Yalamanchi, filed he case which created that term, made it case law, and set legal precedence in this matter of destroying, or otherwise ‘disappearing’ evidence. As a successful physician, Dr. Yalamanchi could afford the private lawyers necessary to obtain justice. Three-and-a-half year old Anthony Martin and his family can’t afford lawyers. As soon as I heard about the attack on this three-and-a-half year old boy, I drove...

In the King James Bible, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Somehow, I don’t think Jesus meant for predators to be able to say “Suffer the little children to come into me.” Nor did He intend ‘wild beasts of the field’ to get away with adding “YUMMY” to His words. Yesterday, I went to an isolated home in Ft Drum, Florida, where a young boy, aged three and half years, was savagely attacked by some wild beast. To make it even more of a horror story, now the bureau-beasts are thinking of attacking...

Teri Thomas was asleep in her Lucky John Drive home late Saturday night when her pet miniature poodle woke her up, barking and scratching at a window to try to get outside. Thomas figured she should try to protect the furniture from her pet. She leaned down and glanced out the window. Outside, just three or four inches from the window, sat a mountain lion staring inside, startling Thomas as she tried to calm her dog. "I leapt back and screamed," Thomas says of the encounter with the big cat. The mountain lion was sniffing a crack in the window...

DEADWOOD -- Despite sitting in a hot, bubbling Jacuzzi on her deck Thursday morning, Marlene Todd froze. She had just eased into in the hot tub a little after 7 a.m. on the deck of her Spring Street home when she heard some rustling beside her. There was a mountain lion, crouching less than a foot away. The lion must have been equally surprised. It was cornered somewhat because the deck stairs blocked its retreat. It would have to go up and over the hot tub.

A hunter was attacked by a mountain lion Sunday near Kalispell. The hunter told officials he was several miles in on a trail when he heard what sounded like the scream of a mountain lion. A short time later, he heard a growl and turned to see a lion about 10 to 15 feet away. The man dropped his rifle and rushed to get behind a tree. The lion pounced on his back and knocked him into the tree. The collision made the lion lose its grip and the hunter reached his pistol and fired a shot... He met several...

Mother-in-law of shooter says he had no choice but to shoot. A man who shot and killed a mountain lion last week in defense of his puppy should face criminal charges in the incident for "baiting" the animal, a wildlife-advocacy group said Tuesday. Wendy Keefover-Ring, director of the Boulder-based Sinapu Carnivore Protection Program, said state prosecutors should cite Jeremy Kocar for baiting the mountain lion by leaving his dog tied up outside overnight. Kocar also should face charges of shooting a cougar out of hunting season, which runs Nov. 20 through March 31, shooting without a hunting license and animal...

A man shot and killed a mountain lion outside a home up Flagstaff Road near Gross Reservoir after catching it attacking his puppy, which was chained on the property, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Wildlife officers are investigating the shooting Friday and are trying to determine whether the man was within his legal rights when he killed the adult cougar, division of wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. “We’re investigating what will happen to the person who shot the lion,” Churchill said. “We do have laws that allow people to protect their safety and the their livestock. But this...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent escaped a close encounter with one of the border's most dangerous characters. No, not an armed drug smuggler, but a mountain lion — that fierce predator at the top of the food chain. The agent was on routine foot patrol Tuesday afternoon when he climbed down beneath a bridge into the Santa Cruz River bed east of Lochiel, about 65 miles southeast of Tucson. It is likely that mountain lions that live in Mexico also roam north into the United States. Suddenly he found himself within about 8 feet of a mountain lion... The lion...