Another mountain lion sedated, removed from a Sonoma County neighborhood

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Another mountain lion has been sedated and removed from a Sonoma County neighborhood, this one with a happier ending than the last.

Tuesday night's encounter was in Rincon Valley, a neighborhood along Highway 12 in eastern Santa Rosa.

"It was probably 10:30 when my whole house got lit up by police lights," said Eric Dengler, who lives near the intersection of St. Francis Road and DeSoto Drive.

Dengler dialed dispatch, alarmed as police swarmed his block.

"I asked if I should be worried, is there someone breaking in? And they said 'Oh no, it's a mountain lion.'"

The male cat, about 10 months old and 46 pounds, was spotted resting in Dengler's front yard.

"I've lived here since 1970 and it's the first time I've seen a mountain lion," he said. 

The mountain lion was calm and unfazed as officers tried to startle it into returning to nearby open space.

"We used our sirens, our air-horns, high beams, spotlights, flashlights, everything we had to get him to move along and he just wasn't having it," said Sgt. Chris Mahurin off the Santa Rosa Police Department. 

The dilemma was not unlike another mountain lion sighting in Rohnert Park last week.

The presence of an adult female cat in a populated area caused a local school lockdown when she wouldn't budge despite efforts to roust her.

She was sedated and later euthanized because she was known to be suffering a neurological condition and unlikely to survive on her own. 

She and many other local lions are tracked by GPS collars.

"They're trying to stay out of trouble but with so many people around they're bound to be seen at some point," said mountain lion researcher Dr.  Quentin Martins, of True Wild, a Glen Ellen-based conservation company.

The young male lion was tranquilized and evaluated, and found to be healthy.

Martins fit him with a tracking device before taking him, with California Fish and Wildlife agents, to a remote area to release him.  

"We will be able to know if it survives, where it survives, what it eats, and where it goes," said Martins, "and hopefully iy will survive to breeding age and contribute to the population."

Mapping mountain lion movements has shown that they travel vast distances, and are frequently present around people, even if undetected.

"One mountain lion's territory can easily be 10,000 private land parcels, and they spend most of their time on private land," explained Martins.

He does not believe that drought or wildfire has forced much change in their behavior.

"If a mountain lion has 10,000 properties in its territory, each one of those properties is a mini-ecosystem so they have many choices."

The young lion is approaching an age when it will separate from its mother and strike out on its own to hunt and establish its territory.

"Now though that  I know they'll come down this far, I'm a little nervous about my evening walk," said Dengler, who watched the 4-hour commotion from inside the safety of his house.

"I didn't know if he was going to jump into the windows, where he would end up, whether he was going to go in the backyard, who knew ?" said Dengler.

Word has travelled in the neighborhood, and police want people to know how to handle a cat encounter.

"It's really important you don't run from them, stand tall and be as broad shouldered as you can, don't cower down so they don't think you're prey or something to go after," said Mahurin.