Adult mountain lion that strayed more than a mile into Azusa is caught in a backyard tree
State wildlife officials tranquilized and caught an adult mountain lion found hiding up a tree in Azusa on Friday morning, police said.
Azusa police began receiving calls of a “large cat” roaming the 500 block of East 6th Street about 11 a.m. and were pointed to a resident’s backyard, police said in a statement.
When officers investigated, they found the cat about 30 feet up a tree and ordered a nearby school shut down as a precaution, officials said.
About 2 ½ hours later, state Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens arrived to capture the wild animal. The wardens tranquilized it and then used a firefighter ladder to bring it down.
Police estimated the animal to be 140 pounds, but Department of Fish and Wildlife Lt. Chris Stoots said the average adult mountain lion weighs between 65 and 100 pounds.
“That’s the factor of a wild animal,” Stoots said. “It’s such a shock that, to a degree, we overestimate. I’ve seen bears in backyards, in kayaks — weird situations — and in reality the weight was always lower than I thought it was.”
The mountain lion was found more than a mile from any open terrain, which made the sighting unusual, Stoots said. Any number of things could have drawn the animal there, including a search for food, a conflict with another animal or an illness, he said.
After the mountain lion was captured, wardens took it back into the foothills to release it, Stoots said.
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