Mountain Lion Sighted by Pair Walking in Hills East of Orange

Orange County animal control officials have confirmed that a couple walking in a hillside area east of Orange sighted a mountain lion Tuesday morning, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Sheriff’s Lt. Russ Elsner said two people walking on a horse trail at Travertine Place and Grove Oak Drive in the unincorporated area of Cowan Heights told officials that they spotted the mountain lion at 7:10 a.m.

The two, who were not identified, asked a nearby resident to call authorities.

Elsner said animal control officers found tracks on the horse trail at 8:30 a.m. and confirmed that they were left by a mountain lion.

“They confirmed by tracks only that there was in fact a mountain lion in the area,” Elsner said.

Tracks Lead to Peters Canyon

He said the officers followed the tracks into Peters Canyon, an undeveloped wilderness area at the eastern edge of the county but never saw the cougar.

The sighting was the second of a mountain lion in populated areas in the last week. A San Clemente woman reported seeing a mountain lion in the driveway of a house last week as she was walking her dog.

The Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park east of San Juan Capistrano has been ordered closed through at least the end of the year because of two attacks on small children this year.

Justin Mellon, 6, of Huntington Beach was attacked by a mountain lion in the park on Oct. 19. Laura Michele Small, 5, of El Toro, was more severely mauled on March 23.

State Department of Fish and Game officials are conducting a behavioral study of the mountain lions that range through the 7,500-acre park and adjacent wilderness. Thus far, at least two have been captured, tagged and returned to the wild wearing radio-transmitter collars that allow biologists to trace their movements.

The county Board of Supervisors meanwhile has approved barring children from Caspers Park except in a picnic area at the park entrance, and then only under adult supervision. Adults wishing to use the park’s trails would be required to file for a permit and travel in groups of two or more.