Sick, ‘desperate’ mountain lions are being seen around Santa Cruz
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SANTA CRUZ, California (KSBW) — Just days after a malnourished mountain lion was captured in a downtown Santa Cruz apartment complex, a second sickly cat has been spotted elsewhere in the county.
The multiple sightings are raising concerns that the cats’ condition is linked to last year’s wildfires, or poisoning through fire retardant or rodenticides, according to a press release from Wildlife Emergency Services.
“Our concern is, the lion is malnourished. Desperate. A desperate cat is a dangerous cat,” said spokesperson Rebecca Dmytryk in the statement.
The black and white video taken from a stationary camera posted on Facebook Monday shows a skinny cat prowling near Newell Creek, Santa Cruz County.
These aren’t the only sightings of mountain lions near well-populated Bay Area spots lately. In June a mountain lion seen around San Francisco was safely captured in Mission Bay and moved to the Oakland Zoo. Later in the year, another cougar was seen watching kids play in Pacifica before the children rode safely away on their bikes.
Mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas, are native to California. California Fish and Wildlife estimate that four to six thousand mountain lions live in the state, though there have been only 16 verified mountain lion attacks on people in California since 1890, six of them fatal.
Zara McDonald, a biologist with the Bay Area Puma Project, told SFGATE that mountain lions are solitary, shy animals that avoid people.
Dmytryk said in the press release that the rescue group is sharing information with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on the recent sighting, in hopes of finding the animal.
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