Mountain lion spotted in SLO woman’s driveway: ‘The cats live here too’
Despite the rain, mountain lions are still on the prowl in San Luis Obispo.
Around dusk Thursday, a SLO resident spotted a cougar in her driveway off of Prefumo Canyon Road, according to her mother, Randi Montgomery.
“My daughter just drove into her driveway and the mountain lion was right there in the driveway,” Montgomery wrote in a Nextdoor post.
The mountain lion escaped into the trees when it saw the woman’s car, Montgomery said.
“It ran off and all is good,” Montgomery said in her post. “Just a reminder that the cats live here too.”
The woman lives “in the country two miles from town” and owns a 150-pound Anatolian shepherd dog — though the pet never encountered the cougar, Montgomery said on Nextdoor.
“Her dogs were in the house, thank goodness,” Montgomery said.
Contacted via direct message, Montgomery said she wasn’t surprised that the cougar ran off when it spotted the vehicle.
“Of course they avoid humans at all costs,” she said.
Mountain lion sightings on the rise in SLO County
Photos and videos of mountain lions in San Luis Obispo County circulated on social media in November.
On Nov. 14, a woman and her dog saw a cougar near their home at Laguna Lake Mobile Estates near Prefumo Canyon in San Luis Obispo.
On Nov. 19, mountain biker Rex Hatter encountered a mountain lion while biking on a trail in Irish Hills, causing the city of San Luis Obispo to temporarily close Irish Hills Natural Reserve and Johnson Ranch Open Space trails to public access.
Then, on Nov. 25, a mountain lion chased Natalie Davis’ dog, Axis, around her backyard off Oceanaire Drive near Drake Circle in San Luis Obispo.
Over the past three years, there have been more mountain lion sightings than usual in SLO County, The Tribune previously reported.
Since 2018, about 370 reports of SLO County mountain lion sightings have been submitted to local law enforcement agencies and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, The Tribune reported.
As of early November, 64 reports of cougar sightings had been submitted in 2022.
“There’s definitely been a recent uptick,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Brandon Swanson previously told The Tribune.
What to do when you see a cougar
If you encounter a mountain lion, you should “raise your hands over your head and make yourself look as big as possible while slowly backing away and give the lion a path to leave,” the SLO Parks and Recreation Department said in an Instagram post. “Speak or yell loudly/firmly to sounds ferocious.”
The agency recommended hiking with a buddy and avoiding trails during the early morning and dusk, when mountain lions are more likely to be on the trails.
