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Mountain lions can roam the cities and streets of America like they own the place because, technically, they kinda do. They, or more specifically, their ancestors, were here long before we were, hunting on the grounds where that new McMansion sits, gulping an elk carcass where the new wing of the hospital now occupies. Development has not been great for predators. That’s what we saw recently in Logan, Utah near the Utah State campus.
Logan is a wild place (regarding its proximity to wilderness, of course, not nightlife). The northern Utah town is on the doorstep of the Wasatch Mountains with two little mom-and-pop ski resorts nearby, Beaver Mountain and Cherry Creek. But a mountain lion was recently spotted by residents roaming the streets, possibly looking for an easy dinner. This happens all the time (remember the lion in Pacifica?), but this is one big cat you wouldn’t want to run into in a dark alley.
The lion reportedly weighed around 115 pounds and was first spotted by cops in a cemetery near the school around 6:45 a.m. before it roamed campus for a bit. It was eventually tranquilized and captured in the backyard of a nearby home after a notice was sent out to Utah State students.
“This one didn’t show any aggression towards anything, we didn’t hear of any reports of pets being killed,” said Utah Division of Natural Resources biologist, Sam Robertson. “It was likely just coming down because there is a lot of deer in the cemetery area.”
The couple that owned the home got a nice surprise when they saw the big cat in their back yard. Luckily, they’d kept their dogs in that morning.
