Mountain lion seen prowling round residential space in San Francisco

A mountain lion was captured in a residential area of San Francisco after prowling the streets for days.

A young mountain lion was captured on Tuesday just before 10.30am in the yard of a Pacific Heights apartment building by the California Fish and Wildlife, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The 2-year-old male weighed 77 pounds and had been running loose throughout the city for 30 hours.

‘He is doing OK. Fish and Wildlife will take him and release him to a natural habitat,’ Mariano Elias, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, told the outlet.

Residents of the city were warned on Monday night that the animal had been roaming the Pacific Heights neighborhood.

The warning advised citizens that if they came into contact with the animal, they should slowly back away.

Madrey Hilton told the San Francisco Chronicle how she saw the mountain lion at 6am on Monday while she was in her car: ‘It was so big … not just a regular cat.’

People often call the species mountain lions in California, cougars across western North America, panthers in Florida, and pumas in Central and South America.

A mountain lion roamed the streets of San Francisco for 30 hours until it was captured near apartment buildings

The 2-year-old male weighed 77 pounds and was tranquilized after being officials

The mountain lion will be moved ideally without any other males as officials believe he was roaming the city in search of new hunting grounds 

The following day, officials spotted the mountain lion around 2am near two large Pacific Heights apartments.

As the lion was hiding in a small spot in between the buildings, an officer shot it multiple times with tranquilizers until it was finally unconscious and caged.

According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the mountain lion is likely searching for its own hunting ground. It was planned to be moved out of the city to an area ideally without other males, said Elias.

The captured lion was originally born in Santa Clara County and named 157M, according to the Chronicle.

The lion had previously worn a Puma Project collar that allowed officials to track the animal, but it had fallen off, said Krysten Kellum, an information officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to the outlet.

The mountain lion will be given a new device.

The captured lion was originally born in Santa Clara County and named 157M, and had a Puma Project collar that let officials track him but it had fallen off

Stephen Sherrill, a San Francisco supervisor whose district includes the area where 157M was captured, told the SFGate that the incident was a ‘true San Francisco moment.’

‘I think the critical thing is to protect the safety of everybody in the most humane way possible,’ Sherrill said.

Recently, on January 21, a baby mountain lion was seen lying calmly in the middle of a busy Los Angeles highway, but experts were concerned she might have been injured.

The six-month-old female cub was seen lying still on the centerline of Hillcrest Parkway in Los Angeles, California, just before 1am on Wednesday, according to NBC 4.

She eventually scampered off an hour later, sparking an urgent search. She was later found in a nearby yard at around 5am and rescued.