In May 2023, a homeowner in Douglas County was astonished to find a partially paralyzed mountain lion taking cover between her basement window well and a spruce tree, dragging itself forward with its front paws. The year-old female couldn’t stand up, a phenomenon clear in the video the owner took while safely inside the house.
Wildlife officers tranquilized the debilitated lion, then euthanized her with a gunshot to the chest to protect brain cells for a necropsy.
After a year of studying the animal, researchers are declaring her the first North American case of “staggering disease” in a mountain lion, according to Colorado State University veterinarian and former Colorado Parks and Wildlife pathologist Karen Fox.
The disease, caused by variants of the rustrela virus,
makes a virulent attack on muscles and the nervous system and is more
frequent in Europe. It was known best in European cats, especially in
Sweden, but has now been found to attack mammals including cats, horses
and possums...more
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