Paul Hammel
LINCOLN — A 103-pound mountain lion was shot and killed Thursday on the northern edge of Valentine, only a couple of days after the cat had disrupted a local golf tournament.
The cat, identified as a “subadult” male, had been spotted on a trail camera crossing the eighth-hole green on Tuesday morning while an invitation was underway for middle school girls at the Frederick Peak Golf Course.
“I was like, ‘Oh, crap, that could be a problem,’ ” said Jacob Fuehrer, superintendent of the unique, 10-hole course.
Radio station KVSH reported at least two other sightings of a lion in Valentine this week.
Golf tournament cancelled
Officials with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission worked with the Valentine Police department to dispatch the mountain lion, which was within city limits, on Thursday.
Sam Wilson, the commission’s program manager of carnivores, said the lion was removed in accordance with the agency’s Mountain Lion Response Plan. It calls for mountain lions that are within city limits to be removed for the safety of residents.
Wilson said lions aren’t shot with tranquilizer guns and relocated because public safety is the top priority, and tranquilizers can take several minutes to take effect, allowing an animal to escape.
Zoos, he said, won’t typically take in a wild mountain lion because they don’t do well in captivity.
No additional Omaha sightings
Fuehrer said Tuesday’s golf tournament had to be cancelled midway through the 18-hole event. None of the contestants, he said, actually saw the lion.
It was sad, Fuehrer said, to learn that the animal had to be shot, “but I understand that they have to do it.”
Wilson added there have been no additional sightings of mountain lions in the Omaha area following a spate of reports in late July and early August.
That lion, he said, likely moved on.