Four-Hour Hunt Fails to Yield Mountain Lion

A mountain lion prowling through back yards in a residential area repeatedly eluded searchers Thursday, despite an intense four-hour hunt for it.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the state Department of Fish and Game tracked the lion in the hope of tranquilizing it and returning it to the wild.

The dark-brown cat was first spotted in the 11600 block of Viking Avenue, behind the home of Tom and Lisa Moon, where it appeared to be stalking a neighbor’s cat that had taken refuge atop the gazebo, Tom Moon said. “He was ready to have a good meal,” Moon said.

Twenty police officers thought they had cornered the lion in the yard, but it escaped. “We had it contained. . . . then it went into a bush and we couldn’t find it,” said Sgt. Dennis Feeley of the Devonshire Division.

Authorities also used a police helicopter with lights and an infrared heat sensor but were unable to locate the lion and called off the search at 8:30 p.m.

“There’s not much we can do if we can’t see the cat,” said Animal Control Officer Mike Pro. He said if it could be found, authorities would try to sedate the animal, but if it posed a danger to humans, they would kill it.

Police warned residents to take precautions with their children because the cougar may still be in the area. Small children are particularly susceptible to attack by cougars, which may not distinguish them from prey.

It was one of a growing number of mountain lion incidents in Southern California’s residential areas.

Last summer, two 12-year-old boys spotted a cougar behind their home in Granada Hills. Police officers shot another to death after it entered a Montclair shopping mall. In Ventura County this month, a lion carried off a Fillmore man’s 75-pound Siberian husky from his front porch.

According to wildlife officials, six of the seven mountain lion attacks on human beings in California in this century have occurred since 1986.

In May of last year, Barbara Schoener was found dead near Cool, a town 45 miles northeast of Sacramento, killed by a mountain lion as she jogged in the Sierra.

In December, authorities found the body of a woman hiker in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park in San Diego, mauled to death by what they believe was a mountain lion. Two children in Orange County were mauled in 1986, and two more were injured in Santa Barbara and San Diego counties in 1992 and 1993.

Hunting enthusiasts blame the increase in lion encounters on a hunting ban which has been in place since 1971. The lion population has grown, forcing the animal into residential areas to find food.

This, hunters argue, is grounds to allow resumption of hunting. But conservationists and animal rights activists are firmly opposed to repeal of the ban.

Marty Wall, a state game warden, said that if hunting were legalized, cougars would still find their way into residential areas.

Tom Moon joked that he hopes the lion isn’t thirsty. He has the only swimming pool on his block.