Feb. 07–Garden City Police and Idaho Fish and Game authorities on Thursday evening tracked and killed a mountain lion near Riverside Village.
A Riverside Village resident reported to Garden City Police at 4:15 p.m. Thursday that a mountain lion had bolted from under his front porch. Garden City Police, Fish and Game conservation officer Bill London and a volunteer houndsman responded to the scene and began tracking the animal through backyards and common areas within the subdivision.
About 5:30 p.m., the lion was tracked to an island in the Boise River where it ran along the Greenbelt path. Upon reaching the head of the island, it was only a few feet from re-entering the neighborhood when it was shot and killed by law enforcement officers, according to Fish and Game officials.
“Our hope was that the lion would tree and we could keep it there until it could be darted and possibly relocated to another area,” London said. “But we gave Garden City the green light to shoot the cat if it failed to tree. Darkness was upon us, and we did not want it roaming the neighborhood.”
The seven-foot-long adult female mountain is estimated to be five to six years old and weigh 90 to 100 pounds. She was in good body condition and not lactating, meaning she did not have kittens.
During the incident, older mountain lion tracks were found, indicating the lion had been in the neighborhood for at least several days. A necropsy of the carcass will be conducted Friday.
This is the third reported lion incident in the last few weeks. On Jan. 27, two dogs were attacked by a mountain lion off Bogus Basin Road, and the following day, a jogger with a dog encountered a lion in the Avimor Subdivision off Idaho 55. In this incident, the lion behaved as expected, running away from the area.
“Based on (the Garden City) mountain lion’s size and condition, we are confident that this is not the mountain lion involved in the Boise Foothills dog attacks a few days ago,” London said.