Mountain Lion Loose In Our Neighborhood. . .

[Joyce]

Just got home from my uncles funeral in CT to find that we have a Mountain Lion running loose in the neighborhood.   
Apparently someones pet got loose.   
Hopefully it'll get a few deer before it gets trapped.   
The cops have several traps set for it. 
http://www2.timesreview.com/ST/Stories/T102308_mountain_lion_jal

[Mikey]

Sorry to hear about the death in your family.

Mountain lions scare me.  In nearby wilderness areas we have had several attacks of humans over the years by mountain lions that resulted in at least one death and another person being severely mauled.  They normally feed on deer and smaller game but I think they are starting to learn that those two-legged creatures don't run very fast..... 

I saw a documentary on TV where California fish & game biologists were tracking the activity of a mountain lion equipped with a gps collar.  They became concerned when their gps showed the lion was leaving its habitat in the Santa Monica mountains and coming into a wooded area behind some residential homes that were built right up next to its habitat.  At first they thought it possibly was killing pets of residents, which sometimes happens, but upon their visiting the wooded area they found a dead mule deer which the lion had been feeding on....

[Jerry]

Many rural areas here have indoor cats and outdoor cats.  The outdoor ones don't last long.
A frind says she saw one at dawn crossing Sunset blvd!

[LBAK]

My aunt had it in her back yard today on Bayview Ave. She called the police and they said they have only seen large raccons in the traps so far. she was telling me that parents are concerned for the kids on Halloween if it's not caught before then. Be safe and if you see a 90 year old women with a camera trying to find it say "hi" to my aunt for me!

Lynn

[LeeAnne151]

I hope it is safely captured and taken to a refuge. If it is a pet, it is likely declawed.

[marla]

Hope they catch it.  For years people here have been saying they have seen them but the DNR said no they don't exist here.  This year it was big news again, and then someone tried to shoot it but only nicked it, they got a blood sample and it was confirmed.  A few months later one showed up in downtown Chicago and they killed it, sure enough it was linked to the one here....seems it was wild and had traveled from the Dakotas.

[EagleEye]

Marla,

I did post this quite a while back, but on a 600 mile gravel road ride that I went on, our goup of 4 guys, each on our own bike had a moutain lion run out in front of us on the first gravel road south of Galena Il. It ran parallel with us for a while, then off into the woods.

But out on Long Island?

Steve

[Joyce]

LI is not one big city like some people think. It's 150 miles long. Less than 50 miles wide at widest point.
Only the west end, about 1/3, is urban.
Where I live is VERY rural, 75+% or body shop work is from deer strikes.

It's still around. Multiple sightings over the weekend and one last night that had all the cops out circling our neighborhood with floodlights on. Got a few phone calls from neighbor-cops to stay inside.
There is a horse farm 1/10 mile east and all the horses were whinnying and screaming.
Something was definitely out there! 

Had to walk Jamie out to the bus stop this morning, armed and dangerous. 

Just a couple maps I downloaded and labeled in Photoshop to visualize what's going on...our house has a red dot.
Cops houses have yellow stars, bus stop green star...mountain lion sightings red stars.


Overall neighborhood, very rural, lots of open, preserved land, no building allowed. Lots of freshwater ponds.


 

Sheesh, I wish this forums software wouldn't crunch the pix so horribly!

[EagleEye]

Had to walk Jamie out to the bus stop this morning, armed and dangerous.

OK, I've got this picture: Camo, (nails too  ) AK-47, belt clips over your shoulders, Smith, hung low on your hip,
night vision goggles.

Pictures????????????

No wonder you didn't see him-----He was scared as hell, as well he should have been.

Seriously thougth, hope he's caught soon.

Steve

[karen J]

LI is not one big city like some people think. It's 150 miles long. Less than 50 miles wide at widest point.
Only the west end, about 1/3, is urban.
Where I live is VERY rural, 75+% or body shop work is from deer strikes.

It's still around. Multiple sightings over the weekend and one last night that had all the cops out circling our neighborhood with floodlights on. Got a few phone calls from neighbor-cops to stay inside.
There is a horse farm 1/10 mile east and all the horses were whinnying and screaming.
Something was definitely out there! 

Had to walk Jamie out to the bus stop this morning, armed and dangerous. 

[snip]

Sheesh, I wish this forums software wouldn't crunch the pix so horribly!

Ditto on the pics.

Did you look like the Sarah Palin action figure? 

Loved the satellite pics.  Love LI and miss it much. I hope they find the cat soon. The best I came to real wildlife on LI was a pheasant in our yard, and seeing a red fox on Northern State Pkwy (it made it across  ). I wonder where the cat came from? I guess you're right in that it was somebody's pet until it got too large. Hard to imagine a mountain Lion hitching a ride on the Orient Point ferry. Though I guess it could happen? After all, they let my kids on board. 

Marla & Steve, I remember that. Do you get the Roe Conn show on WLS 890 up by you? They had pretty hilarious commentary when the cat was in the news.

 OTOH, poor little kitty. Must be scary being a cat outside your natural environment.