NEWSLINK: Mountain lion kills cat, two deer, then darted

Posted: Monday, December 1, 2014 3:33 pm | Updated: 12:52 pm, Fri Dec 5, 2014.

By LEW FREEDMAN | 2 comments

An 120-pound mountain lion that killed two deer and stored them for future meals in west Cody came to the wrong neighborhood.

The big cat – which also killed a domestic cat on Park Avenue – was darted and relocated away from Cody in mid-November.

It’s unusual for a mountain lion to linger in Cody, never mind settle into a residential neighborhood near Eighth Street and the West Cody Strip.

Mountain lions are rare in this area and generally are spotted infrequently as they pass through town.

“It is not common,” Game & Fish spokeswoman Tara Hodges said. “Occasionally, maybe once a year, we receive a report of a mountain lion in town. We would expect a mountain lion of this age class to be transient.”

Responding to a call from a resident, Hodges said G&F sent Sam Stephens and Luke Ellsbury to the scene where they discovered a mountain lion had deposited two deer carcasses in an old root cellar in a homeowner’s yard. It further had taken control of the cellar for its own use and killed a domestic cat.

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