Mountain lion or imagination?

HAYDEN — There might be a mountain lion roaming around Hayden.

Then again, it could just be four-legged fear.

Tracks and scat resembling a mountain lion’s were found Tuesday on the right of way at the intersection of west Honeysuckle Avenue and north Prescott Drive, said Hayden resident Jim Miller. He lives on 2.5 acres adjacent to the greenbelt and has developed the subdivision nearby. He said his groundskeeper found large paw prints and two piles of scat, then notified Idaho Fish and Game. He also heard from a resident who saw the cat at 6:30 a.m. and reported it to the police, he added.

Miller’s neighbor, Ashleigh Lindemann, who lives on west Ridgemont Avenue nearby, explained the incident to her neighbors via social media and heard additional reports of cougar sightings from people in the area. It’s concerning since there are kids nearby, she said.

When contacted by The Press, IDFG regional conservation officer Craig Walker said he had not heard of the incident, but added that there have been a lot of alleged mountain lion sightings in the area lately. He chalked it up to fear after the May 19 killing of a Seattle resident, and wounding of another, by a mountain lion in the Cascades foothills.

“We have been getting an awful lot of reports and sightings,” Walker said.

However, this is not unusual country for lions, given the presence of deer here, he said. They’re secretive animals and so are usually undetected by residents. Multiple sightings of a single cat would be unusual, he added.

Miller said he has lived on west Honeysuckle Drive for 16 years and has seen signs of mountain lions annually. Two years ago he found the hindquarters of a fawn stashed under one of his trees. During winters, he finds big cougar prints in the snow near his patio, which adjoins a vacant 5-acre field.

In the event that IDFG staff confirmed the scat and tracks as belonging to a mountain lion, Walker said the agency would likely document the sighting, and take no further action. Attempting to track a mountain lion through the suburbs with hound dogs doesn’t work well, he explained. Also, many times the reports turn out to be a wild goose chase.

“I have personally investigated reports where a person says there’s a mountain lion in their tree, right now, and when I get there it’s a 10-pound tabby cat,” Walker said.