Lion Search Called Off, No Animal Found

EL PASO COUNTY-Authorities are no longer actively searching for a possible lion on the loose in eastern El Paso County. The search began at 7:35 Monday morning. A 911 call from a home along North Log Road just south of Falcon Highway, reported a lion on the loose in a field.

“They had indicated that they saw what they believed to be was a lion chasing two dogs in the field,” says El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene.

At 8:11 a.m., Sharon Harding-Shaw took a photo of the animal from Falcon Highway and North Log Road. That photo is shown here on the left.

“It just looked unusual to me,” says Harding-Shaw. “We are always looking for wildlife and so it looked like an African lion out lumbering across the pasture.”

At 8:23 a.m., the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office sent out a “geocast” or a reverse 911 call, to residents in the neighborhood warning them to stay inside and keep pets indoors because a lion was possibly on the loose.

At 8:34 a.m., after hearing the reverse 911 call, Jacob Parks saw what looked like a lion out his back window, near Coyote Lane.

“He saw what he believed to be the lion we were looking for under a tree,” says Sevene.

“It was a darker animal, it did have a little bit of a mane, it was gone though,” says Parks. “The second time all I seen was the back end, the first time all I seen was the front, so I don’t know how big or…”

We asked Parks if there was any chance what he saw was a mountain lion or a dog.

“There’s no way it was a dog, it could have been a really scruffy mountain lion,” says Parks. “I’m pretty sure it was a lion. I really, truly believe it was a lion.”

By 3:00 Monday afternoon the search was over, no animal found.

“We had exhausted every possible avenue at this point in time in trying to locate what was reported to us to be a lion,” says El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene.

At least a dozen deputies with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office searched on the ground, with binoculars along side the Division of Wildlife, Department of Agriculture and workers from the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Colorado Springs Police also assisted with help from the air in the police helicopter.

Division of Wildlife spokesman Michael Seraphin says someone found two large cat prints in the dirt.

“There was actually two right next to one another like where a front foot maybe, and a back foot…” says Seraphin. “It was just fortunate to find the track that we found to begin with.”

Seraphin didn’t see the prints himself; they had already been run over by a truck. He says someone took a camera picture of the prints. He also says the width of the print is wider than the length of a pen.

“That’s a big paw,” says Seraphin.

But is it a lion?

“It’s really inconclusive, I mean there’s enough there to say we better err on the side of caution, which I think everyone did,” says Seraphin. “Potential that there was a lion out here, but the concluding evidence then started to mount that it could go the other way.”

According to Seraphin, a mountain lion was found in the search area last month. That animal was tagged and removed from the area.

Four local animal sanctuaries have all confirmed none of their animals are missing.

The owner of the Big Cats of Serenity Springs tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 he believes the animal in the photo is just a large dog. He also says the only tracks he saw were canine and not feline. However, members of the Division of Wildlife said they studied a photo of a track that they believed to belong to a large cat.

As of Monday afternoon, theHumane Society of the Pikes Peak Regiondid not have any reports of anyone missing a large dog.