A mountain lion took its time milling around the general areas of Durango High School, Durango/La Plata County Senior Center and the La Plata County Fairgrounds early Tuesday, including hanging out on the entryway of a fairgrounds building.
Melinda Sheppard, food services manager at the senior center, said she was driving into work shortly before 6 a.m. when she saw what looked like a deer darting across the yard of the senior center at 2424 Main Ave.
On closer inspection, she decided maybe it was a dog. On even closer inspection, she realized it was a mountain lion.
“He was definitely looking at me, like he was irritated,” she said.
The lion hung around long enough for her to take photos. She posted one of those photos to Nextdoor with the message: “Morning all. Just a head’s up for kids arriving early to DHS ... this mountain lion was hanging around the senior center and DHS.”
She even had time to shine her car lights on the lion in an effort to scare it away, but the cougar was in no hurry to leave.
“I kept expecting it to sprint away,” she said. “And that’s what I was going for, since I had to get out of my car in a moment. It kind of sat there, and then it kind of just trotted off down toward the river.”
Sheppard said she called the nonemergency line for law enforcement to notify dispatchers that a mountain lion was prowling around near the high school. She thought it was important to report because it was at a time when some student athletes and band members are arriving to school.
The dispatcher offered to connect Sheppard to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, but she declined to pursue it further, saying she didn’t detect a sense of alarm or urgency from the dispatcher.
However, she did notify Durango School District 9-R.
“That was my first thought was like, ‘Holy crap. If my kid was walking to school, I would want to know,’” she said.
The school district said police and wildlife officials walked the river trail as a precaution.
“The DHS leadership team will let families know we had a mountain lion near campus,” a spokeswoman said at 1:50 p.m. Tuesday in an email to The Durango Herald. “The proper authorities responded and have recommended that staff and students pay close attention to surroundings, especially at dawn and dusk.”
The mountain lion circled buses belonging to the senior center, ventured over to the high school’s Impact Career Innovation Center and then crossed over to the fairgrounds where it hung out near the entryway.
“He just hopped up those steps and then he kind of did a couple laps on the steps,” Sheppard said “I feel like at one point he actually went up on his legs, like to look over a railing. That’s when I drove my car further and I was like, ‘Well, he’s got to go.’”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers who reviewed security footage suspect it was a juvenile mountain lion passing through town.
Mountain lion sightings are most common at dawn and dusk, said CPW spokesman John Livingston, in an email to the Herald. The animals often follow drainages such as Junction Creek into urban areas at dusk and retreat the same way at dawn, he said.
While it is not uncommon to have mountain lion sightings in the Durango area, it is “a bit odd” for a lion to be seen on the doorstep of a building at the La Plata County Fairgrounds, he said.
He noted people are seeing mountain lions more often these days as a result of increased technology, including doorbell cameras.
“When people do have sightings like this, we highly encourage them to report it to local CPW officials,” Livingston said. “Now that we are aware of this individual lion, we will monitor to see if we get continued reports of lion activity in this area to determine if management is needed.”
He said a school resource officer did reach out to CPW about the lion activity.
He said Southwest Colorado provides quality lion habitat. Residents should bring their pets in at night and make sure there aren’t areas in their yards where lions can easily hide. Installing motion lights can also help.
Sheppard said she had never seen a mountain lion before.
“He wasn’t scared of my presence,” she said. “... It was kind of scary. They’re just so huge and strong-looking.”
shane@durangoherald.com
