A household's canine discovered a mountain lion below the decking of their house in Boulder, Colorado on Sunday.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and Boulder Police Division responded after a household alerted them to the large cat after their canine found it at round 7.30am native time on Sunday morning.

CPW and police discovered the mountain lion beneath the decking of the home in central Boulder. Pictures posted by the CPW to Twitter present the large cat wedged tightly beneath the decking, and officers rescuing the animal as they subdued it.

The CPW stated that the mountain lion was a male weighing round 120 kilos, which is barely underweight for male mountain lions.

The CPW estimates there are between 3,000 and seven,000 mountain lions in Colorado. A lot of the state is described as prime nation for the animals.

Encounters between mountain lions and people are uncommon with the animals preferring to keep away from individuals the place doable. Assaults are even much less widespread.

Josh Rosenau of the Mountain Lion Basis informed Newsweekbeforehand: "Any type of hazard to individuals [from mountain lions] stays extremely uncommon. Like, similar to the chances of your being struck by lightning in your birthday."

Nonetheless, there have been a big variety of mountain lion sightings in Boulder just lately. The CPW informed KDVR this was the 18th report of a mountain lion within the metropolis since January 15.

CPW image of mountain lion in Boulder
CPW picture of mountain lion in Boulder house. The animal was discovered by a household's canine beneath the home decking. CPW

CPW wildlife officer Tyler Asnicar, who tranquilized the cat, informed KDVR information: "They have been noticed rather a lot in north Boulder. This may occasionally or might not have been a type of cats, however elevated winter exercise is pretty typical as they comply with their prey base down, and significantly the mule deer that transfer into decrease elevations this time of 12 months.

"The cat's focus across the western fringe of city and that results in a rise in sightings and possibly led to this cat being on the town searching for one thing to eat."

Mountain lions hunt a wide range of prey together with massive mammals like deer and elk and smaller ones corresponding to rodents.

The large cats are discovered all through the Americas and are important to ecosystems within the hemisphere. Mountain lions act as key "ecological brokers" and are thought to work together with over 500 totally different species, considered greater than every other carnivore.

The CPW stated in a subsequent put up that the animal had been transported for relocation in a distant spot distant from Boulder.

A second video posted by the CPW to Twitter, which may be discovered right here, confirmed officers releasing the mountain lion from a cage in a distant snowy space. The mountain lion lashes out towards the bars of a cage earlier than sprinting off into the snow.

CPW image of mountain lion in Boulder
CPW picture of mountain lion present in Boulder, Colorado. The animal was tranquilized and relocated in a distant space distant from the town. CPW