MORGAN HILL
– One young mountain lion was released in the hills west of
Morgan Hill Tuesday evening, with the hope that it would find its
mother and stay away from civilization. It was wearing a new ear
tag so it can be identified if it turns up later.
MORGAN HILL – One young mountain lion was released in the hills west of Morgan Hill Tuesday evening, with the hope that it would find its mother and stay away from civilization. It was wearing a new ear tag so it can be identified if it turns up later.
The 4- to 6-month-old female cub was one of three discovered at 6 a.m. Tuesday in Susan Hall’s backyard. Hall lives on Hazelton Court, which backs up against the grounds of Shadow Mountain Baptist School at Hale Avenue and Llagas Road. Hall called the Morgan Hill police. Then she watched as they gathered and tried to tranquilize the cats.
One was hit by a tranquilizing dart shot by Morgan Hill Animal Control officer Daniel Pina; it was captured for the evening release.
A second lion jumped over the fence, ran through the school’s parking lot and into the street where it was hit by a vehicle and killed. The third cat jumped into Carol Lillig’s yard next door to Hall’s where it hid in the bushes for a time. Tranquilizing darts had no effect and, when the cat became aggressive and tried to get into the house through a sliding glass door, it was shot and killed by Cpl. Troy Hoefling.
Lillig and her sons Steven, 14, and John, 11, were home and watched – from inside the house – the drama taking place in their yard. But, when the lion tried to come through the door and officers told her they would have to shoot it, Lillig told her sons to go to their bedrooms and close the doors.
“That changed everything; it wasn’t fun any more,” Lillig said. “We love animals and nature, and we don’t have a fear of mountain lions, but we were upset that they couldn’t take him alive.”
Lillig said she was sure the police did everything they could.
“It was a really unusual situation,” she said.
The state has strict rules for when mountain lions can be killed. Lt. Dave Fox of the California Department of Fish and Game arrived from Monterey to offer what help he could.
“In order to kill, it must be declared a public safety threat,” Fox said. “These officers made an attempt to tranquilize the animal first.”
Police Lt. Terrie Booten monitored her forces from the second floor of Hall’s house.
“She was keeping track of where everyone was, so they wouldn’t shoot each other or anyone else,” Hall said.
Kyle Haynes, principal of the Shadow Mountain School, said he found a police car in his parking lot when he arrived for the day.
“The officer climbed out of the car and said to get the kids inside the school fast,” Haynes. “The kids were still straggling in when one lion jumped over the fence and was hit by the car.”
None of his students or staff was injured, but they certainly were interested in the cats, he said.
“The officers made it clear that they wouldn’t have killed the lion if it hadn’t become aggressive. It was kind of surreal,” Haynes said. “You don’t expect mountain lions to be running through your parking lot.”
Hall said she had been up early working at her computer when she heard a banging sound.
“There standing in the yard was this mountain lion,” Hall said. “I followed it as it walked around the house, and there were two more trying to get out.”
Hall said the whole incident took about two hours, until just after 8 a.m.
“It was the most awesome experience,” Hall said. “I’m an animal lover anyway, but usually we only get raccoons, possums and rabbits.”
Once, on a trip around the yard, one lion looked Hall in the eye.
“He looked straight into my soul,” Hall said. “It was like we had a connection.”
The drugged and captured lion and its two dead siblings were taken to the Morgan Hill Police yard while Fox and his department decided what to do.
“We have three possibilities,” Fox said. “We can take it to the Fish and Game office in Rancho Cordova (near Sacramento) and hold it until we find a home for it – maybe a zoo, or we can release it back into the wild if it is old enough to live on its own.”
Otherwise we have to euthanize it, Fox said. At the age the 40-pound cub was – 4 to 6 months – it probably wasn’t old enough to make it by itself. At first, the Rancho Cordova solution was favored. Fish and Game had a clean and empty cage, but Fox and Fish and Game biologist Martha Schauss worried that they did not have the budget to care for the animal. This turned out to be the case and, later on Tuesday, it was decided to give the animal a chance by releasing it where it might find its mother and be safe.
Fox said education is a big part of his job, allaying the public’s fears that the lions pose a huge threat.
“Mountain lions are not man eaters,” Fox said, “but they do have to kill to eat.”
Usually, the lions dine on deer, rabbits, raccoons and the smaller animals, like house cats that are allowed out. Seldom, he said, do they become aggressive around people.
The problem, Fox said, is that the lion population is getting too big to manage. Since Proposition 117 went into effect Jan. 1, 1990 – it banned mountain lion hunting in California – there is nothing left to reduce the numbers.
“The Mountain Lion Foundation, the group that pushed for 117, thought the presence of an adult male lion in a territory would keep the numbers down because males tend to kill cubs, but not even that is enough. People tend to freak out about the danger; others want to put limits and restrictions on what we can do to manage the animals. You can’t win,” he said. “We have reached ‘caring capacity.’ ”
Another result of Prop. 117, Fox said, was the disappearance of any lion-related budget.
“We have no money to study the situation,” he said. “The law has tied our hands.”
Chief Photographer James Mohs contributed to this story.
