The young mountain lion that was spotted at various spots in San Francisco over the last several days has now been captured.
Animal control officers responded to a spot in the city’s China Basin neighborhood at 4th St. and Channel St. just a few blocks from Oracle Park early Thursday and were able to wrestle the animal into a cage. The adolescent lion was male and weighed 82 pounds, though officials initially thought it was female.
"When they’re that small they often tend to die from being tranquilized, so the first option was to try and capture her alive," San Francisco Animal Care and Control Executive Director Virginia Donohue said.
The officers used a net to capture the animal, which had been spotted in different parts of San Francisco’s downtown area. It is believed the cat made its way into the city from the peninsula.
"What’s usual for mountain lions is they might come up from the peninsula and they look around and say, 'Woah, this is not where I want to be,' and they turn around and go back," Donohue said. "What’s unusual in this situation is how long it stayed."