Pacific Heights had an uninvited guest late last month when a mountain lion padded into the neighborhood, turning a quiet evening into a high-stakes wildlife operation. San Francisco Animal Care & Control officers, backed by partner agencies, spent hours through the night tracking, containing, and ultimately removing the big cat from a narrow courtyard squeezed between two apartment buildings near Lafayette Park. Residents watched the action unfold from their windows as nearby blocks were shut down. No people or pets were reported hurt.
How Crews Hunted Down the Big Cat
Officers first responded after a series of sightings near Octavia Street and Pacific Avenue and then spent hours trying to track the elusive animal through the dense urban blocks, according to the Associated Press. State wildlife officials eventually managed to dart and tranquilize the lion, which had holed up in a tight, brushy courtyard. The sedated cat was secured in a transport cage on the 2000 block of California Street, where crews worked carefully to remove it from the neighborhood. Police and city workers closed nearby streets, and a private school briefly paused classes while officials made sure the area was safe.
Who 157M Is and Why He Wandered Into Town
Biologists identified the animal as a young male known to researchers as 157M, a mountain lion originally collared as a kitten by the Santa Cruz Puma Project, San Francisco Chronicle reports. Experts told the paper that juvenile mountain lions often strike out on long journeys while searching for their own territory and can end up in urban areas when pushed by development or run-ins with more dominant males. Before releasing 157M back into open habitat on the Peninsula, researchers fitted him with a fresh tracking collar so they can keep an eye on his future travels…