{"id":551736,"date":"2026-01-29T14:25:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551736\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:25:15","slug":"mountain-lion-captured-in-san-franciscos-pac-heights-neighborhood-has-long-history-of-encounters-with-biologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/551736\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain lion captured in San Francisco’s Pac Heights neighborhood has long history of encounters with biologists"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The mountain lion that captured the attention and hearts of San Franciscans was released into the Santa Cruz mountains early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

“Everything went smoothly,” said Krysten Kellum, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “He’s a healthy mountain lion. He left his crate right away and off he went into the forest.”<\/p>\n

The cat is believed to be around two years old and 77 pounds. Experts believe he got lost in the city when dispersing and trying to find his own territory.<\/p>\n

Several Pacific Heights residents saw him in their neighborhood, even crossing city streets. Then Tuesday, he was seen in a courtyard garden area between apartment buildings and officials eventually got him out safely.<\/p>\n

VIDEO: Officials capture mountain lion that’s been prowling SF’s Pac Heights neighborhood<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2-year-old, 77-pound mountain lion that was prowling San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood was located Tuesday morning and after hours has been tranquilized and captured.<\/p>\n

But the cat was no stranger to Field Biologist Richie King of the Santa Cruz Puma Project, which tracks and studies mountain lions.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘it’s that same guy,'” King said. “He’s still looking for his own little home territory.”<\/p>\n

King has had four encounters with 157m, as they know him.<\/p>\n

King has put collars on the cat for tracking that they can grow out of or lose, as young as when he was a kitten.<\/p>\n

The last time King saw the mountain lion, he had made it to somebody’s yard in Saratoga.<\/p>\n

MORE: Neighbors worried as mountain lion kills pets in Santa Cruz Mountains, spotted snatching cat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

“I was actually able to do the darting, removed him from this backyard and we relocated him that time,” King said. “Once again I was, ‘alright like maybe I’ll see him again, maybe I won’t.'”<\/p>\n

Little did he know he would indeed see him again. This time in urban San Francisco.<\/p>\n

King said the mountain lion had an ear tag Tuesday and that’s how they knew it was 157m. Tuesday, King put a collar on him again. He hopes the cat stays safe.<\/p>\n

“Doing his thing carving out a little niche for himself, and survives and persists and just lives a natural life out here,” King said.<\/p>\n

In a few weeks you should be able to keep tabs on 157m yourself on the Santa Cruz Puma Project’s<\/a> website.<\/p>\n


\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live<\/a><\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The mountain lion that captured the attention and hearts of San Franciscans was released…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":551737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[242043,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-551736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-242043","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115978850956660956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}