Mountain lion kitten headed east
About a block from the travel blog office here in Deadwood, mountain lions have been causing quite a stir this week. On Tuesday night, South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks was contacted about a pair of mountain lions that had killed a deer and were hanging around in a residential neighborhood.
Early Wednesday morning, GF&P officials arrived on the scene and treed a mature, female lion. It became obvious that the mountain lion had an eye infection and was mostly blind. The animal was deemed dangerous, since it was inside city limits. GF&P’s policy on lions in residential areas is quite clear and they ended up shooting the diseased lion and removing it from the area.
That’s not the end of the story, however. This morning I spoke with Mike Kintigh, division supervisor for GF&P in Rapid City. He said that eye witnesses had reported seeing a second, smaller lion in the area.
Kintigh said that live traps were set in the backyards of area residents where the animals had been seen. Thursday morning the traps were checked and a 3-4 month old, 25 pound male kitten had been caught. He said the traps were empty today, so they suspect that there was only the single orphaned kitten in the area.
The mountain lion kitten that was trapped, Kintigh said, is too young to survive in the Black Hills on its own, so relocation in the forest is not an option. Ironically, he had been contacted recently by two separate zoos from the east coast who were looking for a mountain lion cub.
Through some careful planning, the Deadwood kitten is currently on its way to a Brookings facility, where he will be cared for until moved safely to his new home out east.
I always hate to see animals killed simply for doing what they do. In this situation, however, the future of the kitten seems much brighter than the alternative of having it wander the Black Hills alone, without the ability to care for itself.
Kintigh wasn’t sure specifically where the kitten will end up, but if you ever vist an eastern U.S. zoo in the future, keep your eyes out – it might be the Deadwood kitten.
