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Wednesday, February 09, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Mountain lion leaps through window of Lake Tahoe home
Associated Press
ZEPHYR COVE -- Kay Packard thought an earthquake struck when the guest bedroom window shattered at her friends' home near Lake Tahoe.
Terrified, the Los Angeles woman pulled the covers over her head and never saw the 120-pound mountain lion that invaded the room and left it in shambles before making its exit about 10 seconds later out the same window it entered.
Packard was visiting Andy and Tracy Chapman in Zephyr Cover when the incident occurred around 2 a.m. Sunday.
Officials believe the big cat may have attacked its own reflection in the window.
"The explosion we heard was like a tree coming through the window," Tracy Chapman said. "The room was just turned upside down."
Andy Chapman said he hurried to the bedroom, but never saw the feline intruder.
"I had no idea there was an animal in the room," he said.
Chapman was boarding up the window later that morning when he noticed his dog looking up a tree. The 4-year-old cougar was perched on a branch.
Wildlife experts tranquilized the mountain lion and released it Monday in the Pine Nut Mountains east of Gardnerville.
The cat was tagged with a radio collar and will be monitored by researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, said Chris Healy, a spokesman for the Nevada Division of Wildlife.
Interaction between humans and large animals like bears and mountain lions is becoming increasingly frequent as housing developments encroach on wildlife habitat throughout the Sierra Nevada, wildlife officials said.
"A mountain lion in there is not common but it is not rare either," Healy said Tuesday. "One of the attractions of moving into an area like that is the rural, alpine appeal. But they are also going to be living in and amongst animals. The animals don't respect lines on a map. They only respect habitat."
The mountain lion probably was feeding on coyotes and other small mammals in the area, Healy said. He said the reflection in a window likely prompted the attack.
"They are very defensive of their own territory," he said.
"Suddenly this lion is confronted by this other lion. It jumps from a boulder through the window, and when it lands through the window, it was confronted again with its own image in a mirror, it tore after the mirror and some of the room."
Healy said everyone has the same question: Is the mountain lion still a danger to people? "If it is jumping through windows, it is dangerous to people. But is it going to come back and jump through another window? We don't think so."
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