MORGAN HILL
– Three mountain lion
”
incidents
”
in Jackson Oaks and one in Holiday Lake Estates since early May
have put police and wildlife officials on alert.
MORGAN HILL – Three mountain lion “incidents” in Jackson Oaks and one in Holiday Lake Estates since early May have put police and wildlife officials on alert.
They want residents to keep an eye out, too.
Over the weekend officers distributed flyers to homes in the two eastern hillside neighborhoods – prime lion country – so residents will know what to watch for and how to protect children and pets. And they have installed a motion-sensor camera in trees on nearby Circle Lane. To increase chances of the lion showing up on camera they dragged a deer carcass within range.
A full-sized mother lion and cub were seen by a resident in early May along Oak View Circle off Jackson Oaks Drive.
On May 24 another resident on Oak View Circle found a deer carcass behind his house and called the police who came out with the Animal Control officer – and had a surprise.
“They found a den the mother lion made in brush behind his property,” said Morgan Hill Police Lt. Joe Sampson.
On May 25 Mike Phillips from Santa Clara County Vector Control visited the area, discovered paw prints nearby in the mud and had casts made. Sampson said the casts show two lions, one weighing about 100 pounds, the other about 40 pounds. Phillips was involved in the recent incident when an adult lion strayed into a Palo Alto residential area and was killed by police.
On May 26 a resident of Holiday Lake Estates called to report that her car almost struck a full-grown lion at the far end of Holiday Drive. Sampson said they did not know if it was the same lion since Holiday Drive and Oak View Circle are quite a distance apart.
Every sighting was between 6 and 8 a.m. instead of during nighttime hours when the nocturnal animals normally hunt.
Sampson said, according to state wildlife and vector control people, the reason there have been so many lion visits lately is because the lush rainy season draws the deer down from Coe Park, and the lions follow the deer, which they consider prime food.
Gilroy has had its own recent mountain lion sightings recently when a city employee spotted a large cat near Uvas Creek west of Santa Teresa Boulevard in late April.
The sighting comes on the heels of several incidents where lions were spotted at Bonfante Gardens, also in April, according to Henry Coletto, a wildlife deputy with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department. Soon after employees spotted the large cat, they also found a dead fawn on the park’s grounds.
