In the last month, two different Redwood Valley residents who live near the railroad tracks have been visited in the nighttime hours by a mountain lion. Chris Van Patten told us that one of his cats and a neighbor’s dog have not been seen since surveillance footage caught the creature prowling his property on the night of April 16, 2022.
Van Patten told us the mountain lion first appeared at his property on April 8, 2022, which he described as being located along East Road near the railroad tracks. His Ring camera caught footage of the wildcat coming towards his camera.
The next appearance occurred on April 16, the Saturday evening before Easter, when his Ring camera caught a glimpse of the cougar walking near an outbuilding on his property scanning the area. Van Patten and a neighbor went outside after the camera picked up the mountain lion to check the area but found no sign of the creature.
It is worth noting that the video clearly shows the mountain lion has a tracking collar around its neck. We will be sending the video to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to see if they can identify the specific creature associated with that tracking collar.
Later, that evening, around 2:00 a.m., another Redwood Valley resident located near the train tracks on West Road spotted a mountain lion on a game camera. Van Patten believes the mountain lion in that image is the same one that prowled through his property four hours earlier.
It is entirely possible that this mountain lion captured on camera is the same one witnessed on West Road. As per documentation from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, mountain lions have a territorial range between 3-15 miles and often travel through riparian vegetation and within the brush.
Since that night, Van Patten’s cat has been missing and a neighbor’s dog as well. Van Patten said his Ring camera caught the last known sighting of that dog as it followed the same path the mountain lion had walked.
With the recurring sightings, Van Patten told us he would be installing multiple motion lights around his property “in the hopes that I may at least move it along.”
California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Tom Batter told us previously that as the wildland-urban interface expands, “it is not surprising that we are going to have encounters with wildlife.”
To mitigate the presence of mountain lions around a home, Batter recommended examining the landscaping and outdoor space and considering working to “minimize cover and hiding places.” Stalking predators can use crawl spaces, the areas under decks, or in thick vegetation for areas to hide, he explained
If any Mendocino County resident experiences any form of human-wildlife conflict, Batter recommends they complete the Fish and Wildlife’s Incident Reporting Tool. Also, residents should review the CDFW’s Human-Wildlife Conflict Toolkit for information about mitigating conflict and navigating spaces shared between humans and wildlife.
The Mountain Lion Chronicles
that’s why we have indoor cats and when we have a dog it sleeps indoors. We live in lion country. The fires have brought them down too into the territory they had before humans, not their fault. I have seen coyotes at 6am run across the highway into town looking for outdoor pets, and this was BEFORE the fires.