Police kill cougar on suburban pathway

BY JOHN WELBES

Pioneer Press

06/02/2002

St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)

Bloomington police shot and killed a 100-pound mountain lion Thursday evening after walkers on a popular trail came face-to-face with the snarling animal.

Police were called at about 8:30 p.m. to the area near 112th and Queen Avenue near Nine Mile Creek, where officers saw the cougar lying in underbrush just off the trail, said Jim Ryan, a patrol commander for the Bloomington Police.

"They threw some sticks and things at it," Ryan said, trying to scare it off, "but it still doesn't take off."

The cat's standoffish attitude in a populated area prompted the officers to shoot it, Ryan said. They shot from about 30 yards away using a .223-caliber rifle.

Thursday's incident took place about 1½ miles from a spot south of the Minnesota River in Savage where a Cargill employee took several photos of a mountain lion in early April.

Since 1999, Ryan said, Bloomington police have responded to about 10 mountain lion sightings. "We don't run out and shoot every cougar that we see," Ryan said. "What made this unique was the inaction by the cougar."

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources picked up the animal for testing on Friday and transferred it to the University of Minnesota. Tests will be done to determine its age and health. A cursory exam by DNR personnel on Friday showed no obvious signs that the cat had been in captivity, said Ed Boggess, manager of the DNR's wildlife resources division.

The cat sported a full set of claws and still had its large canine teeth — things that private owners sometimes have removed.

Bill Berg, a retired DNR specialist on predators, said the researchers would likely analyze the animal's stomach and fecal contents to see what it was eating. He added that he never heard of a cougar being shot in the Twin Cities area during his 30-year career. But he received 40 to 60 credible reports of cougar sightings statewide each year, he said.

The Bloomington neighborhood where the cat was shot sits above Nine Mile Creek and the north side of the Minnesota River Valley. Cougars can swim and the Minnesota River wouldn't have been an obstacle if it were the same cougar spotted in Savage in April, Berg said.

Other Bloomington residents who live along the Minnesota River say the cougar had been in the area for at least a couple of weeks.

On Monday night, Chris Fuller, who lives on the river bluffs five blocks south of the Mall of America, said he heard what he believes was a cougar killing a raccoon. The next morning Karen Fuller saw the cougar in their back yard from 15 feet away.

She thinks the cat started making its appearances near their home a couple of weeks ago after she accidentally burned a pork loin. "I threw it off the deck, figuring some raccoons would get it. I think the next morning the cougar was here."

The cougar sighting is one more sign of the wilderness that remains in the Minnesota River Valley even as it cuts through the metro area. In the last year the Fullers have seen a bear, wild turkeys, a red fox — and now a cougar — in their yard. "We keep the camcorder handy all the time," Karen Fuller said, although they didn't capture the cougar on tape.

Berg said he's reluctant to pass judgment on the way Bloomington police handled the cougar Thursday night.

Tranquilizing a cougar isn't always a quick fix either, he said. In the early 1980s a 150-pound cougar was tranquilized near Worthington. "We didn't really know what to do with it. We didn't want to re-release it in the state because of liability problems," he said. After the cat had boarded for a couple of months at a game facility, the state of Colorado reluctantly agreed to take it.

"We didn't do that cat any favor because once it's in a strange area," Berg said, "another cougar will come and kill it."