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Palo Alto visit fatal to cougar
Cop shoots cat near schools and residences
Alan Gathright, Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Police shot and killed a 108-pound mountain lion treed in the heart of Palo Alto on Monday, saying it posed an imminent threat to hundreds of children who were about to be released from two nearby schools.
The male cat, estimated to be 2 to 3 years old, sparked alarm after it was first reported by early-morning dog walkers and a delivery man around Rinconada Park -- less than a mile from Highway 101 and far from the foothills that the big cats normally call home.
Given the highly populated setting, police and wildlife officials said, a police officer was given the OK to shoot the cat at 1:09 p.m. Authorities stressed that attempting to subdue it with a tranquilizer dart would have been too risky because it can take half an hour for the drugs to take effect.
"You're just putting more people at risk if you tranquilize a lion and it takes off,'' said state Department of Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano, whose agency approved a permit to kill the lion as a public safety threat.
"It usually takes at least 20 or 30 minutes for the tranquilizing drugs to take effect. At that point, (the cougar) can be highly unpredictable,'' Martarano said. "That's why we don't as a policy tranquilize lions to remove them.''
He added simply: "Lions are very difficult to catch."
The animal "was a huge threat to public safety," and what would happen if a tranquilizer was used was just too unpredictable, said Palo Alto police Detective Kara Apple. "It was lunchtime for nearby elementary schools, and students were going to be getting out shortly.''
Duveneck and Walter Hays elementary schools are near popular Rinconada Park, which also includes the city's community center and Junior Museum and Zoo.
The lion killing capped a morning of anxious drama for suburban residents unused to big-game hunts.
It began about 4:45 a.m. when a delivery man reported the puma on Coleridge Avenue in the city's most exclusive neighborhood -- Old Palo Alto, which is home to former 49ers great Steve Young and Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs.
Size of a German shepherd
Somehow, the wayward cat crossed busy Embarcadero Road, and an hour later a couple walking their dog reported a mountain lion "the size of a German shepherd walking down the sidewalk," Detective Apple said, before it vanished into the bushes at Cedar Street and Parkinson Avenue.
Palo Alto police called officers in on overtime, and a yard-by-yard search was conducted. Patrol officers from five surrounding communities helped out, and a California Highway Patrol plane buzzed overhead.
Duveneck Elementary School Principal Ruth Malen was notified by the associate school superintendent at 6:15 a.m. that a mountain lion had been spotted in the neighborhood near the school. When she arrived at the school, a police officer and patrol car were parked in front, standing guard over the school grounds.
At the direction of the police, Malen asked the staff to keep all of the children inside their classrooms for morning recess, and physical education classes were held in the school's multipurpose room. At lunchtime, children were allowed to eat and play near their classrooms but were called back in after another sighting.
The final chapter began just past noon, when gardeners entering the backyard of a home on Newell Road near Channing Avenue saw the cougar cut through the yard and leap a fence.
About 20 minutes later, John and Linda Furrier's 2-year-old son, Tyler, and 3-year-old daughter, Caroline, were playing in the backyard and open garage on Walter Hays Drive when their 11-year-old black Labrador retriever, Kelsey, began growling ferociously, making a noise the couple had never heard. Soon afterward, the Lab darted after something down the street.
John Furrier followed the dog outside, where cruising animal-control officers warned: "Your dog's out, and there's a mountain lion loose in the neighborhood.''
Suburban watchdog
What no one realized at the time was that dog had driven the cougar up a tree in the next-door neighbor's front yard.
Nobody saw the mountain lion until 40 minutes later, when CBS 5 TV reporter Len Ramirez said he looked up in a 20-foot camphor tree and "saw this big cat sleeping peacefully in a tree, like something in a National Geographic special.''
"In my calmest voice, I told my cameraman, 'Bob, look up,' and pointed at the tree,'' Ramirez recounted. The reporter then notified a patrol officer parked under the tree -- unaware that his quarry was overhead.
"The cop looked up and had this surprised look, like 'Oh!' -- and then he radioed it in,'' Ramirez said.
A police officer armed with an AR-15 rifled arrived within seconds as the lion appeared to stir, rising into a crouch. The officer, a woman police wouldn't identify, fired one shot, hitting the cat in the midsection.
"Oh, my God!" a neighbor screamed as the lion clung briefly to the limb before falling to the ground. It ran onto the front lawn of a neighboring home, then collapsed and died.
In a surreal scene, neighbors spoke with a mixture of nervous humor and relief as the Furriers' toddlers played on a swing dangling from the tree where the cougar had been perched minutes earlier.
"It's very scary to have a mountain lion in a neighborhood with small kids. They're helpless against an animal that size,'' said John Furrier.
Just overhead
Many residents recounted how they'd unwittingly walked beneath the tree where the cat was perched during the excitement of the search.
"We were looking in the bushes on the ground. How stupid are we?'' said Lisa Mellberg, who lives across the street.
Everyone praised Kelsey the Lab as a hero.
"Kelsey's getting steak for dinner tonight,'' said Linda Furrier.
Apple said police, who initially were using the news media and patrols saturating neighborhoods to notify residents, were initiating a phone alert system when the lion was found and shot.
Santa Clara County wildlife specialist Mike Phillips, who examined the dead lion, said it did not appear sick or hungry. Phillips suspected the young lion had been hunting along nearby San Francisquito Creek, which runs from the foothills to the bay, and probably "just got disoriented" and wandered into the neighborhood.
A necropsy planned by Fish and Game scientists may determine whether this is the same lion that clawed and bit a horse last month in the hills behind Stanford University, Phillips said. Researchers will study the animal's stomach contents and can even compare the lion's claw and bite marks with the horse's wounds.
They could also use genetic analysis to match the lion's DNA with tufts of cougar hair left on a barbed wire fence during the horse attack.
Meeting a mountain lion
Don't hike alone. Keep children close to you.
Do not approach a lion, especially one that is feeding or with kittens.
Stay calm, talk calmly and move back slowly. Running may trigger the lion's chase instinct.
Leave a way for the lion to escape.
Face the lion, and stand upright. Try to make yourself appear as large as possible. Wave your arms slowly to appear larger.
Do not crouch or bend over. You may look like prey in this position.
Lift up children so they don't panic and run.
If you are attacked, fight back. Try to remain on your feet and use rocks, sticks or your hands to fend off the animal.
Report encounters as soon as possible to local authorities at 911 and the Department of Fish and Game's 24-hour dispatch center at (916) 445-0045.
Mountain lion
(cougar, puma, catamount)
Adult length:
59" - 108"
Paw print: 3"- 4" long
Cop shoots cat near schools and residences
Alan Gathright, Diana Walsh, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Police shot and killed a 108-pound mountain lion treed in the heart of Palo Alto on Monday, saying it posed an imminent threat to hundreds of children who were about to be released from two nearby schools.
The male cat, estimated to be 2 to 3 years old, sparked alarm after it was first reported by early-morning dog walkers and a delivery man around Rinconada Park -- less than a mile from Highway 101 and far from the foothills that the big cats normally call home.
Given the highly populated setting, police and wildlife officials said, a police officer was given the OK to shoot the cat at 1:09 p.m. Authorities stressed that attempting to subdue it with a tranquilizer dart would have been too risky because it can take half an hour for the drugs to take effect.
"You're just putting more people at risk if you tranquilize a lion and it takes off,'' said state Department of Fish and Game spokesman Steve Martarano, whose agency approved a permit to kill the lion as a public safety threat.
"It usually takes at least 20 or 30 minutes for the tranquilizing drugs to take effect. At that point, (the cougar) can be highly unpredictable,'' Martarano said. "That's why we don't as a policy tranquilize lions to remove them.''
He added simply: "Lions are very difficult to catch."
The animal "was a huge threat to public safety," and what would happen if a tranquilizer was used was just too unpredictable, said Palo Alto police Detective Kara Apple. "It was lunchtime for nearby elementary schools, and students were going to be getting out shortly.''
Duveneck and Walter Hays elementary schools are near popular Rinconada Park, which also includes the city's community center and Junior Museum and Zoo.
The lion killing capped a morning of anxious drama for suburban residents unused to big-game hunts.
It began about 4:45 a.m. when a delivery man reported the puma on Coleridge Avenue in the city's most exclusive neighborhood -- Old Palo Alto, which is home to former 49ers great Steve Young and Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs.
Size of a German shepherd
Somehow, the wayward cat crossed busy Embarcadero Road, and an hour later a couple walking their dog reported a mountain lion "the size of a German shepherd walking down the sidewalk," Detective Apple said, before it vanished into the bushes at Cedar Street and Parkinson Avenue.
Palo Alto police called officers in on overtime, and a yard-by-yard search was conducted. Patrol officers from five surrounding communities helped out, and a California Highway Patrol plane buzzed overhead.
Duveneck Elementary School Principal Ruth Malen was notified by the associate school superintendent at 6:15 a.m. that a mountain lion had been spotted in the neighborhood near the school. When she arrived at the school, a police officer and patrol car were parked in front, standing guard over the school grounds.
At the direction of the police, Malen asked the staff to keep all of the children inside their classrooms for morning recess, and physical education classes were held in the school's multipurpose room. At lunchtime, children were allowed to eat and play near their classrooms but were called back in after another sighting.
The final chapter began just past noon, when gardeners entering the backyard of a home on Newell Road near Channing Avenue saw the cougar cut through the yard and leap a fence.
About 20 minutes later, John and Linda Furrier's 2-year-old son, Tyler, and 3-year-old daughter, Caroline, were playing in the backyard and open garage on Walter Hays Drive when their 11-year-old black Labrador retriever, Kelsey, began growling ferociously, making a noise the couple had never heard. Soon afterward, the Lab darted after something down the street.
John Furrier followed the dog outside, where cruising animal-control officers warned: "Your dog's out, and there's a mountain lion loose in the neighborhood.''
Suburban watchdog
What no one realized at the time was that dog had driven the cougar up a tree in the next-door neighbor's front yard.
Nobody saw the mountain lion until 40 minutes later, when CBS 5 TV reporter Len Ramirez said he looked up in a 20-foot camphor tree and "saw this big cat sleeping peacefully in a tree, like something in a National Geographic special.''
"In my calmest voice, I told my cameraman, 'Bob, look up,' and pointed at the tree,'' Ramirez recounted. The reporter then notified a patrol officer parked under the tree -- unaware that his quarry was overhead.
"The cop looked up and had this surprised look, like 'Oh!' -- and then he radioed it in,'' Ramirez said.
A police officer armed with an AR-15 rifled arrived within seconds as the lion appeared to stir, rising into a crouch. The officer, a woman police wouldn't identify, fired one shot, hitting the cat in the midsection.
"Oh, my God!" a neighbor screamed as the lion clung briefly to the limb before falling to the ground. It ran onto the front lawn of a neighboring home, then collapsed and died.
In a surreal scene, neighbors spoke with a mixture of nervous humor and relief as the Furriers' toddlers played on a swing dangling from the tree where the cougar had been perched minutes earlier.
"It's very scary to have a mountain lion in a neighborhood with small kids. They're helpless against an animal that size,'' said John Furrier.
Just overhead
Many residents recounted how they'd unwittingly walked beneath the tree where the cat was perched during the excitement of the search.
"We were looking in the bushes on the ground. How stupid are we?'' said Lisa Mellberg, who lives across the street.
Everyone praised Kelsey the Lab as a hero.
"Kelsey's getting steak for dinner tonight,'' said Linda Furrier.
Apple said police, who initially were using the news media and patrols saturating neighborhoods to notify residents, were initiating a phone alert system when the lion was found and shot.
Santa Clara County wildlife specialist Mike Phillips, who examined the dead lion, said it did not appear sick or hungry. Phillips suspected the young lion had been hunting along nearby San Francisquito Creek, which runs from the foothills to the bay, and probably "just got disoriented" and wandered into the neighborhood.
A necropsy planned by Fish and Game scientists may determine whether this is the same lion that clawed and bit a horse last month in the hills behind Stanford University, Phillips said. Researchers will study the animal's stomach contents and can even compare the lion's claw and bite marks with the horse's wounds.
They could also use genetic analysis to match the lion's DNA with tufts of cougar hair left on a barbed wire fence during the horse attack.
Meeting a mountain lion
Don't hike alone. Keep children close to you.
Do not approach a lion, especially one that is feeding or with kittens.
Stay calm, talk calmly and move back slowly. Running may trigger the lion's chase instinct.
Leave a way for the lion to escape.
Face the lion, and stand upright. Try to make yourself appear as large as possible. Wave your arms slowly to appear larger.
Do not crouch or bend over. You may look like prey in this position.
Lift up children so they don't panic and run.
If you are attacked, fight back. Try to remain on your feet and use rocks, sticks or your hands to fend off the animal.
Report encounters as soon as possible to local authorities at 911 and the Department of Fish and Game's 24-hour dispatch center at (916) 445-0045.
Mountain lion
(cougar, puma, catamount)
Adult length:
59" - 108"
Paw print: 3"- 4" long
