Cougar makes itself at home after killing pet cat by Colorado house. Can you see it?
_fitted.png "A mountain lion killed a pet cat and hung out around the owner’s Colorado home, until wildlife officers arrived to deal with it, officials said.")
A mountain lion killed a pet cat in Colorado, and instead of sneaking away, it hung around the owner’s home and made itself comfortable — until wildlife officers stepped in.
The incident happened earlier this month in Bailey, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Bailey is about 46 miles southwest of downtown Denver.
The homeowner called wildlife experts for help because the cougar not only killed their cat, but was hiding out underneath and next to an RV near the home, CPW said in a social media post.
Wildlife officers responded by “hazing” the animal, using non-lethal methods to make the mountain lion move on.
In a video shared by the department, a wildlife officer is seen approaching a grassy field giving way to a thicket of trees. He’s standing on a mound of dirt flanked by a bush, saying “get out of here! Get!”
It’s not clear what he’s talking to, and then the cougar suddenly darts out from under the brush on the officer’s right. He takes a shot at the animal, blasting it with a bean bag round, and it bounds off into the woods.
“If you look closely under the bush, the lion had made a daybed there below the driveway near the same RV,” officials said. “Hopefully it doesn’t return.”
While encounters between humans and mountain lions are rare, they are becoming more common, at least in Colorado, according to CPW. There are a few reasons for this, including increased human expansion into mountain lion habitat, and a growing mountain lion population, among others.
Officials estimate there are between 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions in the state of Colorado.
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Cougar makes itself at home after killing pet cat by Colorado house. Can you see it?."