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does this animal like tranqquilizers?
from the Denver Post:
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_9322639
Cougar tranquilized on second Boulder sojourn
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/20/2008 02:45:08 PM MDT

Wildlife biologists shot a mountain lion with a tranquilizer dart this morning after it was spotted a second time in the same Boulder foothills neighborhood.

Colorado Division of Wildlife biologists were called to a home on Pleasant Drive near Seventh Street, where the mountain lion was spotted at 7:15 a.m.

Biologists set up a perimeter and shot the animal with a dart at about 10 a.m., said Jennifer Churchill, division spokeswoman.

The mountain lion, which is about 2 years old and weighs 138 pounds, was not aggressive, Churchill said.

Last week, the same animal was discovered under a porch at a home about two blocks away.

At the time, the mountain lion was taken several miles into the mountains and shot with rubber pellets in what is called "aversion therapy," Churchill said.

"He's going to get another dose of that today," she said. "It's just to give them a sting and give them a scare."

The biologists will fit the mountain lion with a radio transmitter, take him about 60 miles from the neighborhood where he has been found and track his movements, Churchill said. They will plot the movements of the animal on a weekly basis.

"This is part of a study that is the first of its kind," Churchill said.

Biologists hope to learn ways to deal with wild animals that go into residential areas.

Hopefully, even if the animal returns to this same range, he will avoid homes, she said.

It is not uncommon for mountain lions to wander into populated areas. They kill raccoons and deer and sometimes attack pets and people, Churchill said.

If wildlife experts believe a mountain lion is a danger to people or pets they will euthanize it, she said.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2 ... bed-again/


Cougar caught in Boulder for second time
By Vanessa Miller, Daily Camera
Originally published 02:39 p.m., May 20, 2008
Updated 12:13 a.m., May 21, 2008
Wildlife officials tend to a 2-year-old male lion after he was tranquilized today in Boulder. This was the same lion that was relocated into open space last Thursday from a south Boulder home on Grant Place and was spotted again about 7:15 a.m. sleeping under a back porch at 755 Pleasant St., on University Hill.

Photo by Colleen M. Scanlan Lyons, Special to the Rocky

Wildlife officials tend to a 2-year-old male lion after he was tranquilized today in Boulder. This was the same lion that was relocated into open space last Thursday from a south Boulder home on Grant Place and was spotted again about 7:15 a.m. sleeping under a back porch at 755 Pleasant St., on University Hill.
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For the second time in a week, wildlife officers have tranquilized the same mountain lion while he was doing the same thing: napping under someone's backyard porch in the University Hill neighborhood.

The 2-year-old male cat, who was first darted and relocated to open space Thursday from a home on Grant Place, was spotted again Tuesday morning snoozing under a back porch at 755 Pleasant St. - near a hot tub, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife and witnesses.

The sighting - like last week's - forced officials to lock down Flatirons Elementary School, about two blocks away at 1150 Seventh St.

After letting the 138-pound mountain lion sleep for several hours, wildlife officers shot him with a tranquilizer dart, said division spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill.

Due to the animal's location in tight residential quarters, she said, officers found it too tough to try and haze him into open space without creating a public- safety hazard.

The division will relocate him into the foothills, but Churchill isn't saying where he's being taken.

She said the cat isn't in immediate danger of being killed, but "if he comes back, we will have to decide if anything else needs to be done with him."

Officers know that the mountain lion captured Tuesday is the same cat darted last week because they tagged and collared him at that time for the division's Front Range Mountain Lion study. The study allows researchers to monitor the movements and home ranges of about 20 mountain lions in the area by fitting them with tracking devices.

"This seems to be part of his home range," Churchill said, "But we would like to see him hunting for prey away from where people live."

The mountain lion has not acted aggressively, and neighbors in the area haven't reported any pet deaths.

As part of the division's efforts to train mountain lions to steer clear of populated regions, officers do "aversive conditioning" before releasing tranquilized cats back into the wild. That conditioning includes hitting them with rubber projectiles or bean bags, Churchill said.

"We'll try to give him a good scare," she said.