 |
|
|
|
|
Mountain lion put down on Highway 17
Officials say that injured animal couldn't be saved
By Jeff Kearns
State and federal officials closed Highway 17 briefly Sept. 20 after finding a dying mountain lion lying on the shoulder of the southbound highway on Big Moody Curve.
After the CHP stopped traffic in both directions, a warden from the Wildlife Services Branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture shot the animal at close range at about 5:45 p.m.
CHP dispatchers heard about the animal for the first time at about 2 p.m. that day from a motorist who reported hitting it. The motorist called from a roadside call box at a turnout on the highway, but CHP officers who checked out the area after the call couldn't find the injured animal.
During the morning commute, another motorist called in at about 6:45 a.m. to report a mountain lion sitting on the side of the road--highly unusual behavior for a wild predator. Again, CHP officers couldn't locate the animal, but they did find a blood stain on the freeway.
State Fish and Game officials came out to the reported site later in the afternoon, but they couldn't find anything either, until they got help from the same motorist who made the second call that morning. Even a team of tracking dogs couldn't find the animal.
The motorist stopped when he saw police and wardens searching the roadside at about 5 p.m., then pointed out where he'd seen the animal in the morning.
Photograph by Jeff Kearns
USDA Wildlife Services warden Cody Stemler and state Fish and Game Lt. Dennis Baldwin had to shoot a mountain lion.
Lt. Dennis Baldwin, a supervisor with the state Fish and Game Department, and USDA Wildlife Services warden Cody Stemler found the animal a few minutes later.
"We didn't see it until we were about four feet away," Baldwin said. "We just about stepped on it, but it didn't even look at us, which means it was extremely injured in some way. ... The report we got was of a healthy mountain lion, but the animal we found had no chance of being rehabilitated. Just to find its injuries would be a hard task."
Baldwin said they had no choice but to dispatch the animal.
"It's not something we do lightly. We take no pleasure at all in having to do this to an animal, especially one that's so majestic. It's really sad, though, because we have more and more of these [car] incidents occurring."
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
