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Mountain Lions Stop By For A Drink

A mountain lion attacking a small animal was spotted by students living near Gerhart Hall on the Bethany University campus in Scotts Valley Monday night, the second such sighting in as many days... Students reported seeing the cougar on both Sunday and Monday nights... Students are also being advised to avoid jogging or walking alone during the early morning hours or at dusk to avoid coming into contact with a mountain lion.

NEAR WIMER, Ore. - Two girls got a scary close encounter with an aggressive cougar in southern Oregon over the weekend.According to the family, 8-year-old Gina Granacki and 6-year-old Annie Granacki were riding their bikes to their home near Wimer on Saturday to grab a sandwich when the older girl was approached by the animal.Gina quickly followed the instructions her parents and school teachers had taught her, putting the bike between her and the mountain lion and not running."...She knows you can't run from a cougar," her mother, DeAnna, told KDRV-TV in Medford. "They'll attack."Her younger sister ran to get help,...

A handful of mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California soon will wear high-tech collars as part of a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa   Cruz. The collars will reveal not only how these animals range within their sprawling  territories, but also how they hunt. The scientists aim to figure out ways to minimize conflicts between humans and mountain lions — also known as pumas and cougars. The collars combine Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology with an accelerometer, an electronic chip the size of a pinkie fingernail that measures acceleration and gravity....

Wildlife officers said they're looking for a mountain lion that was reported this morning peeking into the cafeteria window at the Boulder Community Hospital, 1100 Balsam Ave. Officers, who are searching in the area of west Mapleton Avenue, said they've not been able to locate the cat. The Mount Sanitas trailhead, which starts just west of the intersection of Fourth Street and Mapleton Avenue, has been temporarily closed while rangers scour the area for the animal. Tuesday, officers with the Colorado Division of Wildlife tranquilized a lion spotted napping under the porch of a home at 755 Pleasant St. That...

A mountain lion stirred up some excitement near Flatiron Elementary School... The 138-pound cat was shot once with a tranquilizer gun but then bolted ... At 10:30 a.m., the cat was shot with another tranquilizer dart ... Agents carried the cat to ...an Open Space park in west Boulder where it was released. Wildlife officers said the cat is about 2-years-old and known in the neighborhood. The same mountain lion was in the same neighborhood last week. In that incident, the mountain lion was tranquilized, but managed to run away. The cat also appears to have a high tolerance for...

Confronting Lion Was Breathtaking Experience. “I was walking this trail I had made, hunting for mushrooms, when I came across a deer carcass which hadn't been there before,” said Ron Olson... “I kind of looked around and didn't see anything. When I turned around, just to my left, there stood a mountain lion.” The lion sighting was officially confirmed Friday by officials from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. It is the state's first confirmed sighting in four years. About 90 minutes after they set up the camera, four shots were taken of the mountain lion eating on the carcass....

Finding strength in faith, Anne Hjelle is determined to recover after she was mauled while mountain biking in a wilderness park.A young woman walked into a restaurant last week and sat close enough to get a good look at Anne Hjelle's face. A mountain lion had torn off the left side four years before, leaving it hanging by a flap of skin. Six surgeries hadn't camouflaged the scars. "She saw me and had a deer-in-the-headlights look," said Hjelle, 35, of Mission Viejo. "She quickly got up and moved so she didn't have to look at me." The stranger's reaction didn't...

The video shot in Jack Foerschler’s barn shows his flock of sheep lying quietly in the dark... The flock seems peaceful, until the animals are suddenly startled. A nanosecond later, a blur leaps into the screen and tackles one of the sheep. The ewe is able to escape momentarily, jumping up from the creature’s clutches, running to the viewer’s left. But the invader is faster. It bounds to its feet and extends a claw toward its fleeing prey. The viewer can see its massive claws, slender muscular body and distinctively long tail. The culprit that killed four ewes, a ram...

Now, the predator powerful enough to take down a bull elk is lying helpless under a tent of fir trees while Maletzke replaces the batteries in her radio collar, checks her teeth and measures her girth. Jane is part of a healthy cougar population that lives in relative harmony with its human neighbors in the rapidly growing communities just east of Snoqualmie Pass. In the past six years, Jane has killed deer less than 50 paces from homes — yet residents don't even realize she's there. She has never harmed pets or livestock, nor have any of her offspring. The...

RAPID CITY -- A Rapid City man says he was attacked by a mountain lion. Ryan Hughes says he was ice fishing Saturday at Sheridan Lake, and a lion jumped him as he left the ice and stepped into the woods. Hughes says the lion had a fresh kill in its mouth. Before he could react, Hughes says the big cat jumped on top of him, knocking him on his back. Hughes says he put his hands in front of his face and started kicking wildly. The lion retreated, but it left the man with deep gashes on his arm,...

I have just returned from Ft. Drum, Florida, where the attack on the three year old occurred. He was attacked by an animal on December 6, 2007. The little boy was attacked when his mother went inside to use the restroom and asked Antony’s grandfather to go outside and watch the child for a few moments. This is not the first time a mountain lion has done this. In 2006, a boy was literally taken from his father's hands before the father could realize what was happening and get better hold on the child. Two weeks after the attack the...

In Florida, destroying, hiding, or otherwise making evidence unavailable is called “despoliation of evidence.” That’s legal-speak. Despoilation of evidence is illegal. The father of a student participant in an Everglades Institute project, Dr. Yalamanchi, filed he case which created that term, made it case law, and set legal precedence in this matter of destroying, or otherwise ‘disappearing’ evidence. As a successful physician, Dr. Yalamanchi could afford the private lawyers necessary to obtain justice. Three-and-a-half year old Anthony Martin and his family can’t afford lawyers. As soon as I heard about the attack on this three-and-a-half year old boy, I drove...

In the King James Bible, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Somehow, I don’t think Jesus meant for predators to be able to say “Suffer the little children to come into me.” Nor did He intend ‘wild beasts of the field’ to get away with adding “YUMMY” to His words. Yesterday, I went to an isolated home in Ft Drum, Florida, where a young boy, aged three and half years, was savagely attacked by some wild beast. To make it even more of a horror story, now the bureau-beasts are thinking of attacking...

Teri Thomas was asleep in her Lucky John Drive home late Saturday night when her pet miniature poodle woke her up, barking and scratching at a window to try to get outside. Thomas figured she should try to protect the furniture from her pet. She leaned down and glanced out the window. Outside, just three or four inches from the window, sat a mountain lion staring inside, startling Thomas as she tried to calm her dog. "I leapt back and screamed," Thomas says of the encounter with the big cat. The mountain lion was sniffing a crack in the window...

DEADWOOD -- Despite sitting in a hot, bubbling Jacuzzi on her deck Thursday morning, Marlene Todd froze. She had just eased into in the hot tub a little after 7 a.m. on the deck of her Spring Street home when she heard some rustling beside her. There was a mountain lion, crouching less than a foot away. The lion must have been equally surprised. It was cornered somewhat because the deck stairs blocked its retreat. It would have to go up and over the hot tub.

A hunter was attacked by a mountain lion Sunday near Kalispell. The hunter told officials he was several miles in on a trail when he heard what sounded like the scream of a mountain lion. A short time later, he heard a growl and turned to see a lion about 10 to 15 feet away. The man dropped his rifle and rushed to get behind a tree. The lion pounced on his back and knocked him into the tree. The collision made the lion lose its grip and the hunter reached his pistol and fired a shot... He met several...

Mother-in-law of shooter says he had no choice but to shoot. A man who shot and killed a mountain lion last week in defense of his puppy should face criminal charges in the incident for "baiting" the animal, a wildlife-advocacy group said Tuesday. Wendy Keefover-Ring, director of the Boulder-based Sinapu Carnivore Protection Program, said state prosecutors should cite Jeremy Kocar for baiting the mountain lion by leaving his dog tied up outside overnight. Kocar also should face charges of shooting a cougar out of hunting season, which runs Nov. 20 through March 31, shooting without a hunting license and animal...

A man shot and killed a mountain lion outside a home up Flagstaff Road near Gross Reservoir after catching it attacking his puppy, which was chained on the property, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Wildlife officers are investigating the shooting Friday and are trying to determine whether the man was within his legal rights when he killed the adult cougar, division of wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said. “We’re investigating what will happen to the person who shot the lion,” Churchill said. “We do have laws that allow people to protect their safety and the their livestock. But this...

A U.S. Border Patrol agent escaped a close encounter with one of the border's most dangerous characters. No, not an armed drug smuggler, but a mountain lion — that fierce predator at the top of the food chain. The agent was on routine foot patrol Tuesday afternoon when he climbed down beneath a bridge into the Santa Cruz River bed east of Lochiel, about 65 miles southeast of Tucson. It is likely that mountain lions that live in Mexico also roam north into the United States. Suddenly he found himself within about 8 feet of a mountain lion... The lion...