Mountain lion? Fox? Night fright reminds Missoula walker of urban wildlife
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MISSOULA, Mont. (Missoulian) — A scream and glowing eyes in the dark spooked a Missoula man and his dog as they walked near the Clark Fork River before dawn Sunday, but the animal source of the scare remains uncertain.
Bryan Palmer was walking his blue heeler-wolf cross, Zeta, on the pedestrian trail by Loyola Sacred Heart’s football field about 3 a.m. when he heard the scream loud enough to get through his earphones. Zeta was acting scared. Palmer turned his headlamp toward the sound and saw two yellow eyes shining back. Then it screamed again.
“I pulled my phone out and started recording, and tried to scare it away,” Palmer said on Monday. “It followed me all the way back up the trail. I stopped recording and started running as soon as I felt safe. It was insane.”
Palmer said he believed the animal was a mountain lion, although he could not see how big a body was attached to the glowing eyes, the only distinguishable feature in the dim video. Given his dog’s intimidation and the way the animal didn’t back down when he yelled and banged on a chain-link fence, he presumed it was a mountain lion.
The wild cats do occasionally prowl into the Missoula city limits in pursuit of deer and other small game along the river corridor, according to wildlife management specialist Jamie Jonkel at the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks. And they do have a scream like a woman being attacked. But so do other wild animals in the area.
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“Where Kelly Island comes up by Reserve Street, we get lions in there,” Jonkel said on Monday. “There’s good deer hunting in there, so someone could easily see a lion coming up along the river trying to get into Hellgate Canyon. But that’s also right where we know of a fox den, and they are quite vocal. Foxes scream, and sometimes cough like a pheasant.”
Last month, two mountain lion sightings were reported in Missoula, one near River Road and Curtis Street, and the other less than a mile away near the intersection of Wyoming and Inez streets.
Whatever the wild animal was, Jonkel said FWP has been getting a barrage of calls about critters coming into places they’re not expected. The Grant Creek area north of the city has at least a dozen black bears roaming around, including three or four that have become accustomed to seeking out human food. Jonkel said unsecured bird feeders and garbage are especially problematic.
In the city limits, maps show the bear buffer zone where residents must consider special precautions to keep attractants away from wildlife. FWP spokeswoman Vivaca Crowser said people in the zone need to secure their garbage inside or in bear-resistant containers until the morning of pick-up, and should refrain from leaving bird feeders, pet food, compost piles and similar food sources where wildlife can reach.
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