Elusive predator races through backyards, jumps on rooftops, California officials say
An elusive predator made a mad dash through California neighborhoods — and across the rooftops of several homes, video shows.
KTLA 5 tracked the mountain lion’s route through a Camarillo neighborhood and captured the moment the creature leaped from one rooftop to another in a video.
The ordeal started when a homeowner called 911 to report a mountain lion in their backyard shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Ventura County sheriff’s deputies arrived and spotted the cougar resting under a swing set in the backyard, the department said on Facebook.
A photo shows the animal under the wooden playground.
Deputies teamed up with Ventura County Animal Services and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the LA Times reported.
An officer shot at the cougar with a tranquilizer dart but missed the animal — and it took off running, leading officers on an hourlong chase through the neighborhood, the outlet reported.
The animal scaled backyard fences, darted across roadways and through parking lots and eventually made its way up onto a roof to evade officers, KTLA’s Sky5 video shows.
Eventually, officers caught up to the tired creature and were able to tranquilize it with a dart, the station reported.
Wildlife officers took the cougar back to the wild and collared it for tracking purposes before releasing it, a spokesperson told McClatchy News in an email. The agency determined it was “a healthy 3 (year) old lion.”
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The collar is visible in photos showing the release.
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The creatures have been showing up more frequently in southern California neighborhoods, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
The agency included a video of another recent sighting in its Facebook post. It shows a mountain lion trotting alongside a roadway before darting across to go after a raccoon scrambling up a wall lining the highway.
“There have been a few mountain lion sightings in our area over the last couple of weeks,” the department said in the post.
People in the comments suggested the mountain lions might have been displaced as a result of the wildfires in southern California.
“Stunning grace - no doubt the fires have driven them out from their neighborhoods,” someone commented under the video. “Looks healthy and so glad they were able to capture and relocate safely.”
Several people commented on the post saying they had seen mountain lions in town recently.
One person said they saw one “strolling along” in the early morning.
“We got ‘em wandering the streets here in the Bridle Path too,” another person said.
“When you live in their backyard, that’s what you see,” someone else said. “It’s their land, we just live on it.”
Camarillo is about a 50-mile drive northwest of Los Angeles.
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 11:19 AM.
