LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It’s video we showed you first on FOX. A mountain lion roaming backyards just steps from Boulder Highway in a busy part of the Vegas Valley. The big cat visit was caught on multiple cameras.
“Lions are a very elusive critters…they’re they don’t make a big noise,” shared Doug Nielsen, a Conservation Education Supervisor with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. If it were not for the videos, it is likely no one would have ever known the big cat was there.
“My phone was going ‘ding, ding, ding’…there’s only one thing that sets my phone off and that’s the cameras,” recounted William Champion whose camera recorded the big cat napping in his backyard.
It was around 4 a.m. Friday when the big cat was caught on camera jumping over cinderblock walls into multi backyards.
“Moving through the neighborhoods that late at night….the human activity is slow enough that it probably felt pretty comfortable,” Nielsen explained. NDOW says while mountain lions are much more common on the western edge of the valley dropping down from the Spring Mountains, the lion recorded near Boulder Highway and Russell had a likely path from open range.
“When you look at that part of the valley from an aerial perspective, Duck Creek and Pittman Wash come together just down the road and from there are direct lines into the Vegas Wash,” Neilsen revealed. The Vegas Wash which empties into Lake Mead is a major wildlife corridor. NDOW says from the video, it appears the lion is healthy and is likely looking for new territory.
“One of our predator biologists and I sat and evaluated the video for quite some time and guess was that that lion is probably somewhere in the 2-year-old range, a younger lion, which means it’s probably just about reached the point intime where it was time to get out of the nest,” Neilsen concluded. NDOW hopes the lion will continue its search and settle far from people. “Our hope is that the critter will pass on through and get back to open space where it belongs. That’s the best case scenario for the lion and for us,” Neilsen contended.
Clark County is the driest county in the driest state in the country and adding water and landscaping in the Vegas Valley attracts small animals like rabbits which attracts bigger animals like coyotes, bobcats, or the occasional mountain lion. NDOW says they have always been here but with more cameras everywhere, the elusive creatures are more likely to be recorded.
NDOW says if a lion does not leave a populated area or is showing aggressive behavior, it will get involved. It hasn’t had any more reports of mountain lions in the area since Friday.
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