A young male mountain lion was killed in Yankton, Monday morning by Yankton police and Game, Fish and Parks officials. The animal was believed to be about two years old and between 75 to 100 pounds. -- Photo by Kellie Smedsrud

BY KELLY HERTZ
kelly.hertz@yankton.net

Local conservation officers had planned to hold an educational seminar on mountain lions later this summer in Yankton. But those plans changed Monday morning when a young, male lion was killed in a Yankton residential area by law enforcement and Game, Fish and Parks officials.

It is believed to be one of the first mountain lions killed within the city limits of an eastern South Dakota city.

The mountain lion -- estimated to be about 2 years old, weigh 115 pounds and measure about seven feet long from nose to tail -- was sighted at about 6 a.m. in an area east of the Yankton Middle School. According to Andy Alban, a local conservation officer, police received reports of two other sightings shortly thereafter.

Alban said the lion was found hiding in a bush near a residence. Officers flushed the cat out.

"It was fairly frightened and scared. It had been encountered by people a couple of times already at close quarters," Alban said.

Pam Downing, an eyewitness, said she first saw the cat sitting on a neighbor's patio.

"I could see it out of my kitchen window," she said. "It was 10 feet away. He just stared at me for 25 or 30 seconds, then sauntered off."

Alban said the lion had moved through several different yards before returning to the yard where it was originally sighted.

Downing said she saw it again. "He was standing near a place where there was an ice cream pail full of water. He may have been drinking from it," she said.

She said what struck her most about the lion was its head and eyes. "The head was huge," she recalled. "And its eyes steadily stared at me." It was a hypnotic stare, she said, "like if you would stare at it, then it could suddenly jump on you."

The animal moved off when police arrived, she said.

The lion was later cornered in the residential backyard, and it then hid underneath a camper parked in a driveway in the 700 block of 21st St.

As officials surrounded the area, attempts were made to access a tranquilizer gun to capture the animal. However, rounds for the gun, which was borrowed from a local livestock auction, were not available.

However it was impossible to know how effective the tranquilizer might have been on the cat, Yankton Police Chief Duane Heeney noted.

It was decided to kill the animal if necessary in order to protect the public. Several houses in the neighborhood were evacuated.

The mountain lion was killed between 7-8 a.m. when it attempted to get away, Alban said.

Officials said it took several shots at the cat before it died.

Heeney said the decision to kill the lion was difficult but necessary.

"It was an issue of public safety," he said. "I personally saw hundreds of people in the area. We had a school full of kids for the Safety Town program, people were walking around and seeing what was going on.

"I feel comfortable with the decision," he said.

Ron Schauer, regional wildlife manager for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks, said wild animals that feel trapped are often unpredictable because their survival instincts tend to take over.

However, he noted that mountain lions, which are primarily nocturnal animals, usually avoid humans.

"They are, as a rule, fairly scared of human beings," he said. "I think in the last 75 to 100 years, there have only been 16-17 (human) fatalities."

Because of Monday's incident, the mountain lion seminar that was to be held in August will now be held this weekend in the Lewis and Clark Lake Area.

"Ironically, on Saturday I was down here working with Andy on the patrol boat, and we were setting up a program to do in the park on mountain lions," Schauer said. "We had set it up for Aug. 14, but as of today, we've moved that up to Saturday."

Other details of the program were not finalized at press time.

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Monday's incident leaves many questions -- and probably a lot of misconceptions -- about the threat of mountain lions in this decidedly non-mountainous area.

That's one reason why conservation officers were planning the seminar on mountain lions. Several reports of sightings or of tracks were received in recent years. Schauer noted that there are more reported sightings received from Yankton County than from any county in the 20-county area of southeast South Dakota. Wildlife professionals confirmed one set of tracks in the county in 2002.

"I have documented tracks in Yankton County within the last two years. We've had several sightings each year in the area and throughout the state," Alban said. "This is the first confirmed sighting.

"This one was probably a cat we've gotten calls on before," he added. "In fact, there was a call or two last week, and it's quite possible this was the same one. We can't be certain, but the chances are pretty good."

Charisse Dohn, a lake area resident, said she spotted a mountain lion near her father's home on June 4.

"I went out to feed the dogs ... and the dog would not leave my side," Dohn said. "At one point, it just stopped and wouldn't go any further. That's when I saw it."

The next day, a neighbor also claimed to see a mountain lion in the area, Dohn said.

Alban speculated that the lion may have come from the Black Hills and roamed east after being pushed out by adult males. Because a male lion can occupy a large territory -- up to 300 square miles -- other, weaker lions may be pushed out of their native area.

"The lion may have moved along some of the available habitats along the Missouri River and the bluffs," Alban said. "We have Marne Creek that flows through town. It could have found that from the Missouri River, then got too far into town, got disoriented and didn't know how to get out. But that's just speculation.

"We have had several encounters (with mountain lions) within the city limits in the Black Hills and the surrounding areas there," Alban said. "It's fairly unusual in the eastern part of the state, but we have documented lions throughout East River."

Schauer said mountain lions usually stay clear of humans because the cats have no need to prey on larger objects.

"In South Dakota, we have an abundance of game," he said, noting they eat rabbits, squirrels, foxes and other smaller animals. "We just have so many animals out there that they can prey upon, food isn't a problem."

Officials said the remains of the lion will be transported to a laboratory for further study to determine its condition.

"We should also be able to get a DNA sample and can tell if it's related to the cats in the Black Hills," Schauer said.

Alban and Schauer noted that a mountain lion was killed in Spearfish last week after it was suspected of killing some house cats. He added that a dead mountain lion was discovered a few years ago in Charles Mix County.

Schauer said it was "probably just a matter of time before we had (an incident) like this, or where one was hit by a vehicle or whatever the situation could have been."

Dohn said Monday's incident should stand as a wake-up call for skeptics.

Mountain lions "are around. A lot of times, I think people are in denial," she said. "I have lived out (by the lake) for 31 years and I'm sure they were out there before we were ever here."

For Downing, Monday's situation was memorable -- but not out of fear.

"People have asked me, ŒWeren't you scared?'" she said. "I tell them Œno' because it was so surreal."