Caspers Park : Helicopter Patrol Spots Cougar in Caspers Park

Authorities Saturday searched for a mountain lion sighted in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, but a park supervisor said it apparently wasn’t the same one that attacked a 6-year-old boy last weekend.

The lion tracked Saturday is thought to be smaller than the lion involved in the attack, said Jude Weierman, a park supervisor.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies on a routine helicopter patrol reported that they had seen a mountain lion in a tree late Friday, Weierman said. Animal control officers went to the site but couldn’t find the lion, he said.

However, state Department of Fish and Game officials and professional trackers found some tracks Saturday. Weierman said the size of the tracks indicate that the lion is smaller than the one believed responsible for the attack on Justin Mellon of Huntington Beach last Sunday.

Justin Mellon was the second child attacked by a mountain lion at the park in the past seven months. On March 23, 5-year-old Laura Michele Small of El Toro was mauled by a mountain lion.

The search was called off at dusk, the park supervisor said.

County officials last week decided to keep Caspers Park, located seven miles east of San Juan Capistrano, closed for at least 60 days while options to make the park safer for visitors are studied. Fish and game officials will use the time to conduct an extensive study of the mountain lion population in the park and the surrounding area.