Mountain lion makes itself at home and feasts on raccoon in Utah backyard, officials say
A family in Utah came face-to-face with a mountain lion as it feasted on a raccoon right in their backyard, officials said.
They spent that Dec. 12 afternoon having a stare down with the cougar through the back window of their home in the foothills of Mount Olympus, KSL-TV reported.
Bob Motzkus told the station his wife noticed the big cat in their yard around 10 a.m.
“She said, ‘There’s a dead animal in our backyard,’ and so I came here and looked. And then he picked his head up and looked right at me,” he told the station, adding “‘That isn’t a dead animal, that’s a mountain lion!’”
The family waited for the mountain lion to get up and leave. But it looked more likely the family “got a pet” since the big cat didn’t seem like it was going anywhere anytime soon, Motzkus jokingly told the station.
State wildlife biologists arrived and spotted the mountain lion lying in thick vegetation on a sloped hill in the family’s backyard, according to Scott Root, conservation outreach manager with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
“Biologists observed that this mature mountain lion had a full belly and was resting as if it had recently eaten,” Root told McClatchy News in an email.
Biologists considered tranquilizing the mountain lion with a dart, but determined it wouldn’t be safe because of the fading sunlight and difficult location, he said.
“Once tranquilized, a mountain lion can jump over many fences and travel quite a distance,” Root said. “Biologists prefer to tranquilize mountain lions when there is ample daylight and they are in places that they will likely remain after being shot with a tranquilizer dart,” like up in a tree or in an enclosed area such as a garage.
Instead, biologists decided it would be safest for both the mountain lion and for the residents to haze the animal out of the yard with a bean bag shot from a shotgun so it would “associate this bad experience with visiting residential areas,” he said.
It worked. The mountain lion ran uphill, leaped over the backyard fence and disappeared as darkness fell, Root said.
After that, biologists discovered remnants of the raccoon the mountain lion had been eating where it was lying in the yard, he said.
Agency officials ask residents in the area to be extra careful and keep pets and kids inside, especially during and after dusk in low-light hours when mountain lions are most active. Mountain lion safety tips are available at wildawareutah.org.
The home is in the Olympus Cove area of Holladay. If the mountain lion is spotted there again, state wildlife biologists will respond immediately, he said.
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 4:25 AM with the headline "Mountain lion makes itself at home and feasts on raccoon in Utah backyard, officials say."
