Mountain Lion Chased Off Campus Of Granada Hills School
GRANADA HILLS (CBSLA.com) — A mountain lion was captured Friday after roaming the campus of a San Fernando Valley high school.
Kennedy High School at 11254 Gothic Avenue in Granada Hills was placed on lockdown shortly before noon, according to a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson.
Several LAPD officers were seen patrolling the front of the school's campus before locating the lion and forcing it to flee off-campus.
The roughly 90-pound male mountain lion then made its way into a local residential neighborhood, where authorities proceeded to shoot it with tranquilizer darts. It was seen staggering on the lawn from the effects of the dart.
Officials took the animal into protective custody shortly after 1 p.m. in "healthy" condition, KCAL9's Jeff Nguyen reported.
#captured About 90lbs male and healthy pic.twitter.com/HThvjSU56y
— Jeff Nguyen (@jeffnguyen) April 15, 2016
The lion will be returned to his natural habitat, authorities said.
Lion safely darted. Great help from @LAPDHQ will return lion to habitat ASAP
— California Department of Fish and Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) April 15, 2016
Nguyen spoke to a resident who captured the lion on cellphone video.
"I came around to our side gate. And I could see that there was a mountain lion right out front. It was pretty interesting," said Cody Romero. "As I saw the video, I was thinking, wow, now I'm in the valley right now. There are mountains around and I guess the lion made it through."
The groggy cat lumbered across Armando Villanueva's home.
"He's a big guy," Villanueva said.
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