Mountain lion tranquilized at Utah shopping center dies

SANDY, Utah — A mountain lion that was shot with tranquilizer darts and captured outside a shopping center in suburban Salt Lake City has died, Utah wildlife officials said Saturday.

The 100-pound cat never regained consciousness from the effects of the tranquilizers after it was shot Friday near Jordon Commons in Sandy, Scott Root of the Department of Wildlife Resources said. It is unusual for wildlife to die under sedation but not unheard of, he said. The animal died late Friday night.

Police say the mountain lion didn’t hurt anybody but had startled people when it was spotted walking across a street toward the shopping center around 8 a.m.

Officers found the female cat hunkered down at the entrance of a steakhouse. It jumped over a fence and hid in the brush near a commuter train line where wildlife officers eventually shot it.

Because the 2-year-old mountain lion was in a highly populated area, something may already have been wrong with it, Root told The Salt Lake Tribune.

The cat was scheduled to be examined Monday at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to see if internal factors contributed to its death.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com