A mountain lion first spotted on a home security camera in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood has now been captured.
Nearby residents were fearful after the first reports of the cat, choosing to stay in after dark and keep their children and pets inside.
Then at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday, the lion was spotted in a tree on Santa Marina St. The city’s Department of Animal Care and Control was notified and soon, California Fish and Wildlife agents arrived on the scene and tranquilized the puma with a shot to its hindquarters.
“Allowed the drugs to take effect for approximately 15 minutes. At that point we went up and assessed and the mountain lion was well sedated. We applied hobbles, which is mainly so that if the mountain lion starts to move around it won’t hurt itself,” said Lt. James Ober.
The animal has been taken to the Oakland Zoo where veterinarians will examine it. There were no reports that the lion attacked or threatened anyone and if it is found to be healthy, then it will soon be released back into the wild.
Its age and sex still has not been confirmed.
Gregg DeMeza says after the lion came down from the tree, it walked right up onto his porch and looked at him through the front door.
“He reared up and looked inside the house and the last thing I saw really was him going in this direction.”
DeMeza said it was an astonishing sight.
“I was thinking about that this morning, how in a city of 800,000 people, why a lion chose our tree and then chose to walk up my staircase.”
While mountain lion sightings are still rare in the city, about a year ago, a young lion was captured just a few blocks from Oracle Park. Unfortunately, a few days after it was released into the wild, it was struck by a car and killed on Highway One in Pacifica.
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