Is an African Lion Roaming Streets of California?

Security video shows a mysterious animal that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says is "no mountain lion."

This isn’t the first time “African” lions have been spotted in California, one was even shot and killed in the 1870s and many more have been spotted across America since Colonial times. The “escaped lion” from a zoo or circus comments made by “experts” over the years has proven to be nonsense. Some think they may be remnant American Lions left over from the Ice Age which ended 10,000 years ago.

Besides zoos and circuses, there are private parties that keep lions too, some of which are illegal.

Rare, strange, and scary sighting in Fallbrook

Thursday, June 10th, 2010, Issue 23, Volume 14. Submitted by Jon Monday

On May 30 around 8 p.m. we noticed that our house cat was fixated on something outside. It was getting dark, but we were able to make out a large black cat. We live in a rural area between Bonsall and Fallbrook, bordering a nature preserve, but hadn’t seen a bobcat in several years. However, looking closer, we saw that it wasn’t a bobcat. It was much larger than a bobcat and a little smaller than a mountain lion, but with a thicker tail, short stocky legs, and was all black. There were several guests who also saw the cat and all agreed with the description.

After a few moments, it moved out of sight into the side yard. We Googled ‘black wildcat’ and ran across an article titled, "First documentation of melanism in the jaguar (Panthera onca) from northern Mexico." Sightings of any jaguar in California are extremely rare."

Fallbrooke CA is about 70 miles from Norwalk CA where the OP video was shot. Most of what's in between is a very large National Forest.

Jaguars in California...cool!

From the Twilight Zone episode The Jungle...

Alan Richards has just returned from Africa, where he is the head engineer on a proposed hydroelectric dam. The project is controversial because the native population, specifically a group of witch doctors, objects to the “wounding of the land” and has placed curses on everyone involved with the project. Richards, being a modern man with modern sensibilities, is unfazed. He discovers a small cache of protective talismans (a severed finger among them) in his superstitious wife’s possession and promptly destroys them. He has sealed both their fates, she believes. He discovers a dead goat outside their door. His long, dark night of the soul begins.

“The Jungle,” written by Charles Beaumont and directed by William Claxton, is an effective exercise in suspense, reminiscent of Jane Randolph’s dread-filled nighttime walk in 1942’s Cat People. Richards finds himself all alone in the city at night, seemingly pursued by --- well, what, exactly? We hear various jungle and animal sounds emanating from various sources (a telephone receiver, a lion statue, tress and bushes), but it’s never really clear if something is actually pursuing him or if he’s just losing his grip on reality. Despite the relative vagueness of the threat, there’s still much suspense to be found, and a few great surprises (the Zulu warrior mannequin in a storefront window is an inspired touch). It’s only at the end of the episode that the curse is proven all too real in an undeniably concrete fashion.

http://mylifeintheshadowofthetwilightzone.blogspot.com/2011/11/tz-promo-jungle-12011961.html?zx=3eb23dad7de9dd45

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