What Pumas In Vegas, Stays In Vegas
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 2nd, 2008
Are the performing lions and white tigers the only big cats in Las Vegas? Are there mountain lions there too? Were people seeing things there the second day of the New Year?
Mountain lions, also known as cougars, panthers, or pumas, have a wide range throughout the West, including in Nevada, and populations are increasing. But are there panthers wild in Las Vegas?
History would tell us that they are around.
In 1991, at the Nevada Test Site, north of Las Vegas, Nevada, Mary Saether, was attacked by a 120-pound female mountain lion. She suffered minor cuts and received 21 stitches on her head, right arm, and back. The cougar crept up on Saether and two male companions and attacked before they were aware of its presence. The two men beat the lion with their cameras forcing it to release Saether. A Wildlife Services Specialist arrived the next day. As he was doing a preliminary check, he heard noise in a tree and turned to find the lion charging. The man had only enough time to draw his handgun and shoot the lion at point blank range. The lion was found to be in good health.
The 1992 reports for Nevada list mountain lion depredations were listed as follows: 9 calves, 1 horse, 4 colts, 5 goats, 318 sheep, and 400 lambs.
But there’s another side of Vegas too.
It was a surprising find at the front gates of the Las Vegas Zoo in September 2006. Someone abandoned a sick mountain lion, an apparent rejected pet grown too big for its former owner. The puma was dropped off and zoo staff members nursed the animal back to health. How often does this happen there?
What was all the uproar in Las Vegas today? Reports and sightings of a big cat in a gated community in Las Vegas?
Here’s the final outcome, late tonight.
Police captured a more than 100-pound mountain lion in a Las Vegas neighborhood Wednesday, authorities said.
Police and animal control officials tracked the animal to a back yard after it eluded capture early in the day and then reappeared Wednesday afternoon.
The animal was tranquilized and captured without incident, Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell said. It was handed over the Nevada Division of Wildlife and will be released in a less densely populated environment, he said.
No injuries were reported.
Authorities estimated the mountain lion weighed between 100 pounds and 110 pounds.
It was first seen in a gated community about 12 miles northwest of downtown Las Vegas. Residents were told to remain indoors, and children at a nearby middle school during winter break were locked down while officials searched the neighborhood after the initial 10 a.m. sighting.
Police gave up after three hours, and then got another call.
“It did what all good suspects do,” Cassell said. “It waited for the cops to leave and then took a walk down the street.”“Authorities catch mountain lion in Las Vegas neighborhood,” Las Vegas Sun, January 2, 2008.
Tonight, it is remains at one of the Las Vegas animal shelters until released back into the wild.
Thanks for early word of this flap from Boing Boing’s David Pescovitz.
hey loren everyone wow this is a great new article about pumas in vegas very interesting. thanks bill green
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I live in Nevada and we’ve been seeing all over the news that mountain lions and bears have been roaming into populated areas at an alarming rate.
There has even been a female mountain lion that wandered right into the local college campus here. She was caught and sent to an animal shelter.
Last I heard they had released her somewhere up near Lake Tahoe. Probably the same fate this cat will have.
Kool. That the animal will be released I mean. Nobody wants a cougar running around the neighborhood. Good to hear this animal wasn’t killed.
People just don’t get it do they? Of course they are wandering thru Las Vegas: easy food and lots of water. The only reason they probably weren’t there (or at least thought not to be there) by those who founded Las Vegas is because they had to bring the water in. The Mountain lions of California are getting over crowded. We are no longer allowed to shoot unless they are attacking us or we have proof that one of them is attacking our livestock (in which case we must bring in the carcass and get a special hunting permit). Man needs to realize that once we get involved, we must act as mother nature. Now their population up so much that they are coming down out of the mountains and right into downtown big city. Their territorial hunting grounds are vast–goes for miles. Each female has at least 2 cubs each year. They are the top of their eco-foodchain. We are getting what we deserve.