The male mountain lion that has been seen frequently over the past several months in Patagonia was euthanized by AZ Game and Fish (AZGF) officers on May 17. The Patagonia Marshall’s office had alerted
AZGF that the animal was under a mobile home on Roadrunner St. in town.
The cat had been deemed a category level two threat to the community the previous Sunday after being spotted eating a cat in a barn on Pennsylvania Ave, where it had been hanging around all day, according to
AZGF wildlife manager for the area Britt Oleson. “People were standing a few feet away from it and it did not leave,” Oleson wrote. Patagonia Animal Control Officer Karina Hillyard approached the lion, who hissed at her, but did not run away. A deputy then shot it with a bean bag in an effort to get it to leave. The lion walked a short distance away and lay down under a tree.
“We did not have any reports of the cat for the next few days until Friday morning,” Oleson wrote. “Our officers were able to get there and euthanize the cat.”
The lion, who is estimated to have been 1.5 to 2 years old, was severely malnourished. His body was sent to the state wildlife veterinarian for Game and Fish in Phoenix to determine if he were ill. Results from the autopsy are not yet available.
Oleson postulated that his condition could have been due to his poor diet, as he was subsisting on feral cats and cat food left out by some people in town. “He should have been a large, male cat. He was not getting the right diet because he wasn’t living in the right place,” she said.