Community

An east Morgan Hill resident reported seeing a mountain lion in her neighborhood early Tuesday morning. The wild animal was spotted in the area of Morgan Avenue, according to the resident, who said she reported the sighting to police. “We were alerted by our dogs about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, as I looked down into our neighbor’s backyard (the) motion lights were triggered and I was surprised when I saw a mountain lion strolling near the back of (the neighbor’s) buildings,” said an e-mail sent by the resident to the Times. Mountain lion sightings are not unheard of in Morgan Hill, which is surrounded by dry, rugged hills that provide an ideal habitat for the predators, according to authorities.As recently as Sept. 20, a resident near Uvas Reservoir submitted a  photo of a mountain lion at night to the Times website. The closeup image appears to have been snapped by a stationary automatic camera.In September 2010, police used pepper spray guns to scare off a mountain lion who was resting near a backyard of a home in Holiday Lake Estates, just up the hill from Tuesday’s sighting. That mountain lion had been lying still before police frightened it away with the pepper-gun pellets. The resident reported the animal to police, who estimated the mountain lion weighed about 100 pounds. In May 2011, at least one mountain lion was confirmed to have been an ongoing nuisance for a resident and her sheep on the 100 block of West Dunne Avenue, less than one mile from downtown Morgan Hill. The animal returned to the property multiple times to feast on sheep the resident owned, which were grazing in a pasture in the resident’s front yard, according to police. Authorities even set up a trap to try to catch the mountain lion, but the effort to ensnare the feline failed, police said at the time. The mountain lion or lions killed four of the resident’s Galapagos sheep over the course of about six weeks. After she removed the surviving livestock to another location the predator was not seen again on the property. The California department of fish and game confirmed by examining the carcasses of the sheep that the deaths were the work of a mountain lion. Police said at the time that even though mountain lion attacks against humans are rare, the animals are dangerous and should be avoided. Mountain lion sightings can be reported to Morgan Hill police by calling (408) 779-2101. 

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