Cougars Killed Near Residences

Authorities killed two mountain lions near California residential areas Tuesday, taking a 7-year-old lion hiding under a porch at Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada and a cub that entered a Morgan Hill backyard about 70 miles southeast of San Francisco.

The Mammoth Lakes lion had attacked dogs in and near the town twice in the past week, and the state Department of Fish and Game had hunted it for about a day, spokesman Steve Martarano said.

The cub killed by police in Morgan Hill was one of three that entered the backyard of a home about a block from an elementary school.

Animal control officers were able to tranquilize one cub at the scene, but the other two climbed a fence, police Lt. Joe Sampson said. One of those cubs died after it ran and was hit by a vehicle.