A young mountain lion visited a ranch off Day Road near Santa
Teresa Boulevard Friday afternoon, hiding out in a tack room until
police scared it away.
A young mountain lion visited a ranch off Day Road near Santa Teresa Boulevard Friday afternoon, hiding out in a tack room until police scared it away.
Residents of a ranch about a mile west of Santa Teresa spotted the mountain lion going into some horse’s stalls about 2pm and notified the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, said Lt. Dale Unger.
Deputies discovered the cougar, described as about 50 pounds, in a tack room, curled up behind a garbage can. It was not disturbing the horses and appeared wary of the deputies, Unger said.
“It was in a defensive posture,” he said. “Every time we approached it, it would go and hide in a corner.”
The four deputies eventually scared it out of the tack room, and it ran toward an open hillside about a mile away, Unger said. The animal may live there, as a mother and two cubs have been spotted in the area, he said.
Due to the unagressive nature of the mountain lion and the area in which it was found, it did not pose a threat to any humans or animals on the ranch.
“They’re still animals, but if they’re in a rural area and we can release it, that’s what we’ll do,” Unger said. “In this situation, scaring it off was the right thing to do.”
