![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/san_francisco_chronicle_hearst_178\/d263e4528e04a8822c291f7515ec2431.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA mountain lion sighting prompted a frenetic search Saturday night in San Francisco’s Panhandle near Golden Gate Park.<\/p>\n
The animal was seen near Fell and Baker streets, intriguing residents who quickly flocked to the site across from the Department of Motor Vehicles office. Authorities asked a crowd of about 20 onlookers who packed the intersection to remain quiet should the animal come down from a nearby tree that police had taped off.<\/p>\n
Park ranger and police vehicles were parked at the scene, along with an Animal Care and Control van, blocking a southbound lane on Baker Street. As of 11\u00a0p.m., crews had shut down at least two blocks of Fell Street east and west of Baker Street.<\/p>\n
Officials had advised picking up small children and keeping dogs on leashes in a Nixle alert issued at 9:10 p.m. After the animal failed to resurface roughly an hour later, enforcement crews launched a drone from the Panhandle to search the tree canopy. By that point, bystanders had set in for what could be a long vigil.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
San Francisco police closed off Fell Street at Baker Street as authorities tried to catch a mountain lion Saturday night. (Kate Galbraith\/S.F. Chronicle)<\/p>\n
Animal Care and Control officers had received a report of the mountain lion Saturday morning from a person walking a dog, said agency spokesperson Deb Campbell. The person who submitted the report described glimpsing the mountain lion climbing into a tree with dense foliage, “but that was not confirmed,” Campbell said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rangers from the San Francisco Recreation and\u00a0Park Department monitored the tree all day and spied the lion in early evening. Multiple departments swooped in to help, including City Hall, the San Francisco police, and the Department of Emergency Management. Animal Care and Control executive director Amy\u00a0Corso was helping management the incident, and as of 10:30 p.m., staff at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were “on their way,” Campbell said, noting that the state department would assess the situation and “decide the best course of action.”<\/p>\n
By 10:42 p.m., a dozen authorities stood at the base of a large conifer surrounded by caution tape and beamed flashlights upward. Other officials shooed bystanders across Fell Street to follow the action from a safer distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among the throngs was Esteban Peralta, who had encountered a park ranger vehicle earlier in the day as he walked with his wife in the Panhandle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We didn’t really think much of it,” Peralta said, noting that the San Francisco Mime Troupe was performing nearby. He had assumed rangers were helping contain the event. Curiosity drew him back late that night after the alert flashed on residents’ cell phones.<\/p>\n
At 11:30 p.m., Fish and Wildlife officers arrived and stood near the tree as police officers looked through binoculars. Sprinklers, apparently timed, started near the tree.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/san_francisco_chronicle_hearst_178\/423049165839309bb73a37bd71dae92c.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A bystander spotted a mountain lion in this area of San Francisco’s Panhandle on Saturday night. (Kate Galbraith\/S.F. Chronicle)<\/p>\n
Saturday’s dramatic search effort marked the second reported mountain lion sighting in San Francisco this year.<\/p>\n
In January, a\u00a0lion was captured<\/a> after about 30 hours in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The process took longer than expected because responders said the 2-year-old lion was nestled in a small spot between two buildings and had to be tranquilized several times.\u00a0<\/p>\n That mountain lion, named 157M<\/a>, was eventually sedated and released into the wild on the Peninsula.\u00a0<\/p>\n “If the mountain lion approaches – make yourself ‘big,’ wave your arms, shout, throw something, and again, do not run,” officials at Animal Care and Control instructed.<\/p>\n Subscribe<\/p>\n There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25\u00a2.<\/a><\/p>\n