Residents of a southeast neighborhood near Boulder Highway in Las Vegas Valley received a rare visitor last Friday—a mountain lion was caught on home security footage traversing fences and backyards in the early hours. William Champion had the unexpected sight recorded by his security cameras, showing the large cat gracefully leaping walls and eventually taking a brief rest in his backyard.
Champion, who was asleep at the time, said his phone alerts, triggered by the motion-activated cameras, roused him with a “ding, ding, ding” around 4 am. He reviewed the footage to find the mountain lion’s surprise visit: “Right here, right in this corner, just took a nap. 15 minutes. It wasn’t moving,” he told FOX5.
The neighborhood where the large cat was seen is located roughly a quarter mile from a channel connecting to the Las Vegas Wash, suggesting the animal had to have traveled through populated areas to reach Champion’s property. Despite being close to a six-lane highway, such wildlife sightings are unusual, and the local community is not accustomed to encountering predators of this sort…