A young mountain lion made a surprise appearance in San Francisco Monday, in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and as of Tuesday morning it had been found by Animal Care & Control.
A mountain lion was spotted Monday traipsing across the street in Pac Heights, in the vicinity of Octavia Street and Pacific Avenue. At least one resident caught the big cat on video, and a text alart went out to the entire city via the SF Department of Emergency Management at 9:19 pm, telling people that if they came upon it, they should "slowly back away" and not start to run.
The mountain lion was said to be young, and SF Animal Care & Control suggests that the animal may be lost and intending to travel south of the city.
There was an additional sighting in Lafayette Park, a few blocks from the original sighting, as NBC Bay Area reports. And another resident snapped a photo of the cat at Sacramento and Gough streets early Monday morning, per the Chronicle.
Angela Yip, a spokesperson for Animal Care & Control, said the mountain lion appeared to be "scared and hiding" near Lafayette Park, and was not a threat to the public.
As of 6:20 am Tuesday, the agency said it had located the mountain lion and a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife was on their way to tranquilize the animal so it could be transported to a better habitat.
This is the first recorded sighting of a mountain lion in the city of San Francisco since 2021, when one of the big cats made an appearance in Bernal Heights.
A young mountain lion was also spotted wandering Russian Hill and the Embarcadero in the early days of the pandemic, in June 2020, and at the time, a spokesperson for Animal Care & Control said that this sighting was a first in downtown San Francisco.
That mountain lion cub or adolescent was also said to be likely "lost."
Another sighting of a mountain lion occurred that September in Pacifica.
Experts say that young male mountain lions often meet tragic ends in the Bay Area, getting hit by cars and the like, when they go off wandering seeking out their own territory.
Photo by Robert Thiemann
