A mountain lion found roaming around an Azusa, California neighborhood on Monday was tranquilized by fish and game officers and was being hauled back to the wild.
The adult female mountain lion was spotting going through the backyards of multiple homes about 7 a.m., police told KTLA-TV.
Aerial video showed the animal leaping hedges and, at one point, jumping on top of a shed.
It also was spotted pawing at a door of the residence of 91-year-old Phyllis Camarena.
Deborah Moore, Camarena's neighbor, told The Los Angeles Times she encountered the big cat while walking to her home after checking on a neighbor's dog.
"I was stunned and amazed at the beauty. I didn't feel scared, it didn't seem like it was aggressive," Moore told the Times. "We just had a kind of staring contest and I didn't want to take off and have it chase me or something."
Officers were able to tranquilize the animal a few hours after it was first spotted.
"The officers and the Fish and Game warden … they wanted to make sure everybody was safe in the backyard and that they had a clear shot that was going to be effective," Azusa Police Officer Mike Bires told KTLA-TV.
Officers said the mountain lion will be put back into the wild. They said it was blind in one eye and appeared to be malnourished.
KNBC-TV said in some areas of California there are 10 lions per 100 square miles and an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 mountain lions statewide.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said there have been 16 verified mountain lion attacks in California since 1890, six of them fatal, per KNBC-TV. Officials said hundreds of reports are received each year about mountain lions killing pets and livestock,
Mountain lions are a specially protected species in California under the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990, making them illegal to hunt.
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