Mountain lion sighted - Iowa City Press Citizen

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Two mountain lion sightings were reported Friday morning near Horn Elementary School off Benton Street in Iowa City.

Ryan Jacobsen, 35, of Iowa City, said he saw the animal run out in front of his car on Benton Street shortly after 7:30 a.m. and reported it to police. A homeowner in the neighborhood also called a sighting into the Johnson County Joint Emergency Communication Center at 7:37 a.m., JECC executive director Gary Albrecht said.

Jacobsen said he was taking his 3-year-old son to daycare, driving east on Benton Street when he saw an animal run across the street from the left.

"I couldn't hardly believe my eyes," Jacobsen said Friday afternoon. "I would say it was big. If it didn't have a long tail on the end of it, I would almost think it was a deer, but it had a big long tail on the back. It was impressive."

He said the animal ran out from the playground area near Horn Elementary, at 600 Koser Ave., across Benton Street and behind a row of houses.

Jacobsen said he pulled up to another car, and the two people inside said they had seen the mountain lion, too.

"There was no doubting it," he said. "We were both kind of in awe."

Horn and Roosevelt Elementary School, at 611 Greenwood Drive, were placed on soft lockdown Friday and held recesses inside as a precaution, said Ann Feldmann, assistant superintendent for the Iowa City Community School District. The schools were notified of the sightings by University Heights Police on Friday morning.

Misha Goodman, director of the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, said sightings usually are reported in the Iowa City area a couple times each year.

Goodman said officials from the center have done some tracking and found signs indicative of a mountain lion, but the Department of Natural Resources has not confirmed that there is one in the area.

"It's very possible that there is a cat in the area that is moving through the Corridor," Goodman said Friday. "Certainly there have been some found in Iowa."

Animal center officials will patrol the area of Friday's reports for prints, droppings and other signs of the animal, she said.

Goodman advised that people walk in pairs in the areas where the sightings occurred and to not let children walk alone in wooded areas, particularly at sunset. If a mountain lion is spotted, Goodman said to stay at a distance and to never feed it. She also suggested keeping small dogs away from wooded areas and the reported sighting area.

03 Sep, 2011

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