CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN BERNARDINO
Neighborhood residents lined up to snap pictures of what appeared to be a well-fed house cat Thursday, only to find it was actually a 100-pound mountain lion.
“It was an issue of scale,” said Kevin Brennan, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game. “It was sitting in a big tree.”
The incident began about 8:30 p.m. near 40th Street and Electric Avenue when residents spotted the animal staring down at them.
While some began shooting photos, a man cutting wood in his backyard with a chain saw sensed something was amiss.
“Some folks thought it was a big cat, but he saw that it was a mountain lion,” Brennan said.
Game wardens tranquilized the animal and immediately moved it into the San Bernardino National Forest.
“You see mountain lions in any foothill community,” Brennan said, “but to see them that far into a city is amazing.”
-- David Kelly
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