Fremont Lion Found Dead At School
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 14th, 2007
When I was investigating mountain lion, puma, mystery cat, and black panther reports in the 1970s, many accounts from northern California were not believed. For example, in 1973, from Concord to Danville, California, people reported seeing a black panther. (Source: Vallejo Times-Herald, March 5, 1973.)
I guess times have changed in those neck of the woods.
A Fremont Unified School District employee received a very unusual greeting at work in Fremont, [California] Monday [August 13, 2007]: a dead 80-100-pound mountain lion sprawled in front of an elementary school parking lot.
The animal appeared to have been struck by a vehicle near the school and apparently wandered onto Vallejo Mill Elementary School property where it died sometime between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Monday, according to Sgt. John Dauzat of the Tri-Animal Control services.
Dauzat said when officials inspected the mountain lion, serious external injuries were not apparent. “(It) was bleeding a little from its mouth, and one eye was ruptured,” Dauzat said.
Dauzat speculated that the animal was heading for the Alameda County Creek, which runs through Fremont, and made a wrong turn. Dauzat said a car probably hit the cat, although no drivers have called the Police Department to report hitting a mountain lion.
“(The cat) could have been hit at night, and the driver didn’t know it was a mountain lion,” Dauzat said.
Mountain lion sightings in Fremont are rare, although the carnivorous cats are sometimes lured to the city by deer or the creek, Dauzat said.
Dauzat said the last mountain lion sighting in Fremont was over six months ago.
The California Department of Fish and Game advises anyone who encounters a mountain lion to convince the animal you are not prey by raising your arms to try to appear large, throwing stones, branches or whatever you can reach without crouching or turning your back on the animal and speaking slowly and firmly in a loud voice.
The Vallejo Mill Elementary School is located at 38569 Canyon Heights Drive in Fremont. “Mountain Lion Found Dead At Fremont School,” CBS5, August 14, 2007.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Cougars are being found more often near residential areas as a result of game management by popular vote (and somewhat by urban sprawl). The same can be said of black bears. Atleast that has been my experience in Washington State.
Well, I am curious to see if anyone comes forward about this. At the time, the person may not have realized that they hit a mountain lion, but they surely must have realized they had hit something. Hitting a creature of this size is not like going over a speed bump, especially if the hit was enough to kill it. This sort of collision can cause extensive damage to the vehicle involved, which I am sure anyone here who has ever hit a deer can attest to. Perhaps if this discovery is made more high profile, then the owners of that car will come forward and more light can be shed on what happened.
Any more the cougars are heading into the larger cities because there is no more room for them in their “natural habitat” (I put them in “” because there are many places in southern California where we are invading their home). One other defensive thing to remember, if you know you are going into their territory, ie: from foothills on up the mountains, don’t wear red. They have discovered that these animals do see red. Makes sense seeing that ultimately they want a wounded animal for food, it’s easier. I have seen a few literally in my back yard, foothills just east of Sacramento. So this should be no surprise to anyone into the reality of nature. We can take conservationism only so far. There needs to be the predator, but they need the room and prey to survive and stay in their areas. Also, we need to quit building out into their territories. We need to decide what kind of people we will be, at one with nature and actually manage it like the Native Americans did around here, or go industrial again and not worry about nature. I’d rather go towards a responsible management of woodlands, but unfortunately there isn’t much money in it for those making the rules about this whole affair.
If you google earth this you’ll see the school sits right on the edge of the East Bay’s wide open hills of the coastal range (as in mountain range and cattle range). And it happens to be an area I’m very familiar with and near where I and a friend had a growling encounter with some kind of creature 20 years ago. The population has only grown since then, both people and cougars…and deer!. It’s been proposed, though never taken seriously, that in some places human habitat should be somehow fenced-off from the wide open spaces that function as habitat for the resurgent wildlife. It’d make bringing back the brown bear a lot more feasible and help hasten re-wilding and the return to pleistocene North America, a goal I support. I’m sure BF does too.