The Brief

A mountain lion was spotted in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood Friday morning.

The animal was tranquilized after a standoff with San Francisco Animal Care and Control officers. The cat was released later in the day.

It’s unclear if this is the same mountain lion that was spotted in the Golden Gate Park panhandle earlier this month.

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco Animal Care and Control officers on Friday morning tranquilized and captured a mountain lion that had made its way into the city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood.

The puma was spotted near 44th Avenue and Ulloa Street by neighborhood residents around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.

“We woke up at like 7:30, there were like 50 crows on the power line, crowing and making a huge ruckus,” Alex Grant told KTVU. “Then the cops showed up, and we learned it was hiding behind (a bush). It ran right in front of our house, then they tranquilized it, and we saw it run into the street too.”

Locating and darting

Local perspective

First responders closed 44th Avenue between Ulloa and Vicente Streets while they worked to locate the animal, leading to an hours-long standoff.

San Francisco Animal Care and Control Officers were joined on-scene by officers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as well as staff from the nearby San Francisco Zoo, all of whom coordinated to share expertise and safely tranquilize and remove the mountain lion.

When they managed to fire a tranquilizer dart at the animal, it briefly ran into the street, where responders blocked its path, causing it to run back and forth while the drugs took effect.

“I was a little nervous, especially when the police yelled to clear the intersection. It was interesting. But I was across the street and I stepped up onto the curb,” Carson Ryan, who was at the scene, said. “I did not (have an escape plan). I figured if it was my time, it was my time.”

Shortly after the tranquilizers took effect, animal care experts were able to move in, and determined it was a juvenile male, and weighed about 78 pounds.

Expert perspective

What they’re saying

John Morgan of the Santa Cruz-based Puma Project, which studies mountain lions in the Santa Cruz mountains, said the animal was likely seeking to establish its own territory.

“This was a young male, which is pretty typical. That tends to be the type of individual that tends to get into trouble in cities,” Morgan said. “A lot of times they’re looking for home ranges. At about one-and-a-half, two years of age, they disperse from their mom. This is likely a dispersing male that’s looking for a territory.”

The animal didn’t have an ear tag or GPS collar, meaning it was responders’ first encounter with this particular mountain lion.

Experts say big cats play an important ecological role and are a sign of the overall wellbeing of the environment around the Bay Area.

Morgan said mountain lions are generally fearful of people, and they’d like to keep it that way to make sure the animals stay in wild areas and don’t become too accustomed to people.

“If you do encounter a mountain lion, whether it’s on a trail or in the city, it’s important to remain large, make noise, and try to scare that mountain lion away, and not approach the mountain lion. You should not run in the other direction,” Morgan said. “These are wild animals.”

Catch and release

What’s next

After being collected, the cougar was fitted with a GPS tracking collar as part of the Puma Project’s ongoing tracking and research efforts, and was released back into the wild.

There have been numerous mountain lion sightings in the region over the last couple of weeks, though it’s unclear if the animal captured today had previously been reported by residents.

The most recent instance was earlier this month, when a mountain lion was spotted near the Golden Gate Park panhandle earlier this month.

In January of this year, Fish and Game personnel had to collect a mountain lion that was cornered near California and Octavia Streets. In that case, the animal had already been tagged and was released back into the wild.

The Source

Information for this story was gathered at the scene by KTVU reporter Christien Kafton, plus additional information from San Francisco Animal Care and Control.