LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It is something neighbors would not believe if it were not caught on camera: a mountain lion jumping from backyard to backyard just steps off Boulder Highway near Russell Friday morning.
Now neighbors are sharing their videos and stories with FOX5.
“It came over this corner here, came down, went down here to the front gate… I’d love it to come by every night, but I don’t think we’re going to see it again,” William Champion told FOX5’s Kim Passoth as they stood in his backyard.
Champion may never see the cat in person but will have the footage from his security cameras forever of the surprising backyard visitor. Champion was dead asleep when the animal decided to pop by around 4 am.
“My phone was going ding, ding, ding, there’s only one thing that sets my phone off and that’s the cameras, I was going, ‘wow.’ That just looks so graceful, the way it gets over the walls and gets past my security devices,” Champion said. The big cat quickly made itself at home.
“Right here, right in this corner, just took a nap. 15 minutes. It wasn’t moving,” Champion explained to Passoth.
When it awoke, the cat then jumped into a neighbor’s yard.
“He had to have walked through that apartment complex,” a neighbor shared while talking over a fence with Champion.
“I’m presuming that the mountain lion came from the wash… it’s looking for food or something,” Champion guessed.
While it’s not highly unusual to see a mountain lion in the Las Vegas Valley, they are usually seen in the outskirts not steps from a six-lane highway.
“We don’t see that sort of wildlife around here,” Champion shared.
The spikes on Champion’s cinderblock wall are meant to keep people, not animals, out he’s just glad his dogs slept through the big cat visit.
“If you’ve got smaller dogs, any other pets that stay in the backyard, they’re at risk,” Champion expressed.
The neighborhood where the big cat was recorded is about a quarter mile away from a channel that connects to the Las Vegas Wash. The mountain lion had to have crossed populated neighborhoods and streets like Boulder Highway to get to Champion’s backyard.
Friday night, FOX5 reached out to the Nevada Department of Wildlife about the mountain lion to learn more. We will let you know when we hear back.
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