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Sighting of big cat roils Eagle Rock

 

 

 

Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Police Department officers and California Fish and Game wardens in search of what is believed to be a mountain lion that was seen in the neighborhood. The search was suspended at 2:30 p.m., but officers were staying in the area in case it reappeared.

Police and animal control officers call off an hourslong search that started with a report of a mountain lion in backyard. The animal, which might have been a bobcat, gets away.

By Francisco Vara-Orta, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:19 PM PDT, May 2, 2008

Authorities have called off a search for what they believed was a mountain lion that made its way into the backyards of homes in Eagle Rock this morning.

Los Angeles police received a call about 8:45 a.m. that a mountain lion had been seen in the backyard of a house on the 5000 block of College View Avenue, said Officer Norma Eisenman of the LAPD. But when en route to that location, authorities on the scene saw the animal flee to a nearby residence at 2479 Niagara Way.

 

 

• Map: Mountain lion sighting
• Mountain lions in California

In addition to officers from the LAPD, officials with the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services and California Department of Fish and Game agencies were on the scene until the search ended around 2 p.m. after the animal couldn’t be found, said Capt. Wendell Bowers of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services.

“We’ve done everything we could do,” Bowers said.

Bowers said it was possible that the sighting involved a bobcat, a tailless animal that can weigh as much as 35 pounds. A mountain lion has a long tail and can weigh as much as 90 pounds, Bowers said.

“We have reports of bobcats more frequently there, but not any of mountain lions,” he said.

The animal, which also had been seen from a Los Angeles County sheriff’s helicopter, may have been in a tree at some point, neighbors said. Officers had not seen the animal by early afternoon, but remained at the scene to monitor the area, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Before the search was called off, authorities were trying to close in on the animal to tranquilize it.

“So far it poses no threat to the public and hasn’t attacked any humans, pets, or other animals in the area,” Martarano said.

Occasional mountain lion sightings are a fact of life for foothill residents, whose backyards are within miles of the creatures’ habitat, Martarano said. Still, he said it was “very unlikely” for mountain lions to be roaming deep in a residential neighborhood like Eagle Rock.

Police were urging people to keep children and pets inside during this morning’s search, Martarano said.

“This is the first time I’ve ever heard about a mountain lion in the area,” said Suzzanne Wylie, an Eagle Rock resident who lives a block away from the scene this morning.

Wylie, who was out shopping this morning with her two grandchildren when she noticed helicopters circling over her neighborhood, took a back route home because some roads were barricaded near the scene at Niagara Way. Once there, she rushed to get her grandkids inside and quickly brought in her two cats and dog.

“It’s a very scary thought of one [a mountain lion] so close,” she said. “It could easily climb up my fence and get in my yard.”

In February 2006, a mountain lion made national news when it wandered into an Altadena neighborhood and caused a daylong standoff, Martarano recalled. During that incident, authorities locked down nearby Edison Elementary School for four hours before the cat was tranquilized and taken away.

Last year, two fatal mountain lion attacks on dogs, including a 60-pound Labrador mix, occurred in August in La Crescenta and Altadena. It remains unclear whether the same animal killed both dogs, authorities said; the attacks occurred about six miles apart.

Animal experts advise foothill-area homeowners to keep their pets indoors, especially at night, and to avoid leaving pet food or water bowls outside. Birdbaths, kiddie pools and other standing water sources could also attract mountain lions or animals that they prey on, such as deer.

The Department of Fish and Game estimates that California has between 4,000 and 6,000 mountain lions. Adult male mountain lions can weigh 120 to 150 pounds and females 65 to 80 pounds.

Deer are mountain lions’ favorite prey, but they will also attack goats, sheep, cats, dogs, raccoons and, less often, horses.

Anthony Guarino, a seismic analyst at Caltech who lives on the same block as today’s sighting, said that in the three years he’s lived in the hilly neighborhood he’s seen a number of animals that mountain lions prey on, but not the predator itself.

“I do a lot of camping and spend a lot of time in the Sierras, so I know mountain lions tend to be very docile when you see them, and tend to run away,” Guarino said. “I think my wife and I are more concerned about being attacked by a human in the area.”

Mountain lion attacks on people are rare in California, according to state records. Since 1890, 14 verified mountain lion attacks on 16 humans have occurred in the state, resulting in six deaths.

According to state records, the most recent mountain lion attack on a human in California was in January 2007 in Humboldt County. The victim, a hiker, survived.

francisco.varaorta@latimes.com