Wednesday morning at a Northern California high school, a custodian safely confined a cougar, who was just curiously walking around, in an empty classroom.
At around 8:23 a.m. the sheriff’s office received a call from the school that there was a mountain lion in the building. The update on the mountain lion came around 5 p.m. when the cat was officially removed safely from the building.
He was opening the Pescadero High and getting it ready for the school day, when he spotted a juvenile mountain lion inside the building, said Detective Javier Acosta with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. He also said that there were no students or teachers on the campus when this happened.
He said, “The mountain lion casually walked through campus and decided to go into an English classroom. The custodian acted quickly and managed to shut the door behind it.”
He said that the animal, about 40 pounds, seemed to be “lost and scared.”
The cat was tranquilized and sent to the Oakland zoo for further examination by a group called The California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
This male cat was estimated to be 4-6 months old and underweight. It has a fractured tooth that needs to be extracted before it gets back into the wild.
This incident happened two days before the school year was ending. Graduation and finals were intended to be scheduled on Wednesday but will end up being postponed.
A person from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told Nexstar’s KRON that the state of health of the animal is questionable and they don’t know if the mountain lion will be safe and able to survive in the wild.
At the Oakland zoo, veterinarians will be able to further examine its health and dictate whether the animal can go back to the wild.
