A cougar was shot and killed by a New Mexico Game and Fish Department officer after being spotted in a Ruidoso residential neighborhood on Saturday. Officials were unable, after several tries, to chase the cougar out when it was reportedly found outside a Ruidoso home just several blocks from the White Mountain Schools campus. "We're seeing more and more lions show up in different towns throughout the state," said Leon Redman, the southeast area chief with the New Mexico Game and Fish Department. "In this particular case, the lion didn't show fear to humans," Redman said. "It was run off three different times and kept on returning." Phone calls and reports of mountain lions or other wildlife in populated areas go to the Game and Fish Department. Redman said there is "no doubt" that more than one mountain lion has been in Ruidoso in recent months. The department received a total of seven calls regarding cougars in the Ruidoso, Alto and Capitan areas in December 2010. In 2011, however, a Ruidoso-area supervisor for the department reported that so far 25 calls regarding cougars and six for bears have been logged. Other incidents regarding mountain lions include two attacks in separate instances, one resulting in the death of a Silver City-area man, in 2008...
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New Mexicans for Proactive Wildlife Predator Management
1 comment:
Our family has a summer home in Ruidoso and I was there when this occured. Unfortunately the lion was killed. It could have been darted and taken to back country and released. With the extreme drout and no food sources it is easy for the lions to kill the deer that come into the village. The wild life need to be respected and hopefully people will be smart when they see them.
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