That two-year-old male mountain lion who wandered up from the Peninsula and ended up scaring dozens of people around Pacific Heights on Monday has been released back to the wild, way down in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

It was major news Tuesday morning that a mountain lion had been spotted all over Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow, in a rarity for San Francisco. We may be plenty used to coyotes at this point, and the city is full of raccoons, but apex predator cougars are typically too skittish to wander into the busy city — the last known sighting of one was five years ago, in Bernal Heights.

Animal Care & Control has now posted a brief video showing its officers as they located and kept tabs on the mountain lion, after it had taken refuge in the gap between two buildings on California Street between Laguna and Octavia.

They then waited for a California Department of Fish & Wildlife agent to arrive who could tranquilize and transport the big cat out of town — and that whole process unfolded Tuesday morning.

The Chronicle obtained footage from Fish & Wildlife of the mountain lion's release, which occurred early Wednesday morning in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Krysten Kellum, a public information officer with the state agency, tells the Chronicle that the handlers waited until the mountain lion had fully woken up from his tranquilized slumber, which didn't occur until around 2 or 3 am today. At that point, they opened the gate of his cage, and video shows him quickly bounding off into the woods amid a light rain.

The animal had previously been tagged in Santa Clara County and was given the name 157M, and researchers with the Puma Project had put a tracking collar on him — but that collar had somehow come off.

It appears the cat has been fitted with a new collar, and was released in an area where he will have plenty of space to roam.

Experts have noted that adolescent male cougars, like this one, can sometimes wander into areas that are not safe for them, as they seek out new territory for themselves.

One such mountain lion also wandered into San Francisco in June of 2020, when the streets of downtown were notably quieter.

Previously: SF Animal Control Locates Mountain Lion In Pac Heights, Takes It to Be Released Outside the City