SF Panhandle quiet after mountain lion sighting — unclear where it is

The scene at San Francisco’s Panhandle near Golden Gate Park was quiet early Sunday, with no officials present and all roads and paths open, after a mountain lion sighting Saturday prompted a major response by police, park rangers and wildlife wardens.

On Saturday, the animal was believed to be in a tree just off the bike path near Fell and Baker streets. The sighting, reported in the morning, was confirmed in the evening when wardens got “eyes on the lion in the tree,” according to Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell. The animal had been expected to remain there overnight as wildlife experts monitored. 

It is unclear what happened to the animal; it did not appear that it had been captured. Officials have not explained how a lion sighted in a monitored tree could vanish,

Tamara Aparton, a spokesperson for the Recreation and Park Department, said her staff had not received any additional mountain lion sightings Sunday morning. She did not confirm whether officials had located the cougar.

Officials had cordoned off the northeast edge of the Panhandle and closed Fell from around Broderick Street to Central Avenue. Late Saturday night, authorities flew a drone and shone lights up the tree in an effort to determine whether the lion was still there and ascertain its position. At 7 a.m. Sunday, all roads and paths were open. 

Animal Care and Control officers got an initial report Saturday morning from a person walking a dog, Campbell said. The person who submitted the report described glimpsing the lion climbing into a tree with dense foliage.

To confirm the initial report, rangers from the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and Animal Care and Control monitored the tree the rest of the day Saturday, and in the early evening they spied the lion, according to Campbell. Multiple departments swooped in to help, including City Hall, the San Francisco police, and the Department of Emergency Management. Animal Care and Control executive director Amy Corso was helping manage the incident, and wardens with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife arrived in the late evening.

After phones in San Francisco pinged with an alert about the lion around 9 p.m., a few dozen curious onlookers flocked to the site, which is across from the Department of Motor Vehicles office. Authorities initially asked everyone to remain quiet in case the animal decided to come down from the tree. Later, the park’s automated sprinklers came on, nearly dousing some of the dozen or so police officers on the scene.

Among the onlookers was Esteban Peralta, who had encountered a park ranger vehicle earlier in the day as he walked with his wife in the Panhandle. 

“We didn’t really think much of it,” Peralta said, noting that the San Francisco Mime Troupe was performing nearby. He had assumed rangers were helping with that event. Curiosity drew him back late that night after the alert went out.

Fish and Wildlife wardens were planning to monitor the area overnight, Campbell said late Saturday. She said the officers didn’t expect to get the mountain lion down until morning.

Asked whether the drone or the officers shining flashlights up the trunk had seen the lion in the late evening, she said: “Everyone backed off to keep the scene quiet and calm and not scare the lion,” she said. “The tree has thick foliage, so it’s difficult to see anything through the branches and leaves.”

Officials had advised picking up small children and keeping dogs on leashes in a Nixle alert issued at 9:10 p.m. 

Saturday’s dramatic search marked the second reported mountain lion sighting in San Francisco this year.

In January, a lion was captured after about 30 hours in the Pacific Heights neighborhood. The process took longer than expected because responders said the 2-year-old lion was nestled in a small spot between two buildings and had to be tranquilized several times. 

That mountain lion, named 157M, was eventually sedated, examined for health issues (there were no major ones), and released into the wild in the Peninsula. That is likely the same general procedure officials would follow for the Panhandle lion. 

“If the mountain lion approaches — make yourself ‘big,’ wave your arms, shout, throw something, and again, do not run,” officials at Animal Care and Control instructed.