Fremont Lion Found Dead At School

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.

Loren Coleman 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.

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