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GARDEN CITY — Families staying in two cabins on Bear Lake got a surprise visitor for the New Year’s holiday.
At about 9:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Kyle Stringham said everyone was just getting out of bed and making breakfast when his friend’s wife came running down the stairs saying she saw a giant cat run through the yard and then under a neighbor’s house about 20 feet away.
“We immediately got all of the kids in the house and locked the doors,” he said. “There were some big windows directly at that side of the house, so of course everyone pulls out their phones and whatever they can to take video — we’re just waiting to see if the thing comes back out.”
Stringham said he called the local fire department, who in turn contacted the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. He also called the neighbor’s home, where several families with children were staying for the holiday, to let them know they should stay inside.
At first officials tried to scare the cougar out from underneath the house, which is on stilts, using some sort of small smoke device, but instead of coming out it retreated further into the corner, according to Stringham. Corrie Wallace, a land owner assistant specialist for the DWR, arrived on the scene after responding to another cougar call that turned out to be a false alarm.
“We were belly-crawling under this home to try and get eyes on this cougar and it had crawled into this tight little corner, so we had to somehow tranquillize it and get it out of there,” she said. “It took us a while to tranquillize it. She was a fighter, so as we tranquilized her and she kind of fought around we ended up having to shoot her more than once with the tranquilizer guns.”
I think she was a little bit surprised (to see us), but she knew that if she backed up into that little corner where it was dark she was safe, because she was looking at us like, 'What are you going to do?
–Corrie Wallace, DWR assistant specialist
“When she finally did go down, for us to get her out of there since she crawled into such a tight spot, we ended up having to remove the boards off of their front porch and pull her through the slats, which ended up being effective,” Wallace continued. “It was a lot safer for us to do it that way and once we got her out, we got an ear tag in her and hauled her off.”
Wildlife officials used a bear trap to transport the cougar to the North Slope of the Uintas, according to Wallace. She said the cougar was definitely healthy and estimated it was between 2 and 3 years old and 120 and 130 pounds.
The cougar most likely followed a herd of deer down to the area, Wallace believes. She said it looked as though the cougar had been under the house several times before to take shelter from the wind and cold.
“I think she was a little bit surprised (to see us), but she knew that if she backed up into that little corner where it was dark she was safe, because she was looking at us like, ‘What are you going to do?” Wallace said.
The entire episode lasted about 7.5 hours, according to Stringham. He said the DWR was amazing with its response and treatment of the animal. He enjoyed seeing the process of capturing and tagging an animal and said his 4-year-old daughter even got to pet the cougar on its head while it was sleeping.
“It was cool because I realized how rare it was to actually see a mountain lion,” he said. “The kids all got to take pictures and see a mountain lion and the whole thing.”
The frequency of cougar sightings in the area depends on the year and weather, according to Wallace. She said in the five years she has been with the department, this is only the second cougar they have been able to confirm.
Contributing: Tammy Kikuchi
