YOUR AD HERE »

Mountain lion tranquilized in back yard of Boulder home

Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) ” Wildlife officers tranquilized a 90-pound mountain lion near a home along the foothills after a resident saw the cat devouring a deer in a neighbor’s back yard.

The female cat was released later in the mountains northwest of Boulder.

The mountain lion was spotted at about 9 a.m. Thursday in a north Boulder neighborhood.



Resident Ken Furie told Division of Wildlife officials that deer were acting strangely in his neighbor’s yard, jumping and showing their hooves. When he looked over the fence to see why, he spotted the mountain lion.

“The cat just looked at him,” said Furie’s wife, Krista.



Krista Furie called wildlife officers, who shot the mountain lion with a tranquilizer dart at 10 a.m..

They loaded the cat into a kennel and hauled it away in a pickup.

A green tag was attached to her ear, but she won’t necessarily be killed if she wanders into residential areas again because she did not appear to be aggressive, Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.

“It’s situational. If the animal is aggressive and returns again it could be euthanized,” she said.

It’s not unusual for mountain lions to be spotted in town, wildlife officer Claire Solohub said.

This was at least the fourth encounter between mountain lions and humans in the Boulder area over the past year. In once case, a 7-year-old Maryland boy was mauled by while hiking with family members. The boy survived.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Glenwood Springs and Garfield County make the Post Independent’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.