A potential mountain lion sighting was investigated by the Turlock Police Department on Oct. 6.
The sighting was reported around 8:15 p.m. in the 200 block of Fransil Lane. The homeowners told the police department that the neighbors had alerted them an animal that appeared to be a mountain lion was in their backyard.
Turlock Police officers used a drone to surveil the backyard. They spotted the animal and contacted California Fish and Wildlife, said Turlock Police spokeswoman Dominique Sanchez.
As the animal roamed around, the officers lost sight of it while waiting on someone from Fish and Wildlife.
The homeowner was able to provide a video clip of the animal but given the quality of the video, Fish and Wildlife were unable to confirm if it was a mountain lion or not.
“They said if it was, it would be extremely young,” Sanchez said. “They also advised the public would not be in danger since it occurred on the outskirts of town.”
The last confirmed mountain lion sighting in Turlock occurred in late September and early October of 2014, when several sightings were reported around various neighborhoods. In one sighting a paw print was found.
A sighting was made by a resident in the 2500 block of Barbara Way and Turlock Police and Fish and Wildlife set up a perimeter around the area and searched for the mountain lion to no avail. About two hours later that same night a security guard at Emanuel Medical Center spotted the mountain lion. The guard told officers she spotted the mountain lion when she was going out to check on a homeless woman that stays in the area. The guard saw the woman running and then saw the mountain lion walking near a dumpster. She honked her horn at it and the mountain lion ran off in the direction of Colorado Avenue. The guard described the mountain lion as being about three and a half feet long and about two and a half feet tall.
The clock ticked into the wee hours of the morning and another sighting was made in the 600 block of Wayside, but again the big cat proved to be elusive.
Around 7 a.m. the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department contacted the Turlock Police Department to report a confirmed mountain lion sighting on an access road off of Lester Road between Hawkeye Avenue and Tuolumne Road. Paw tracks were located.
There were also unconfirmed sightings that year in that same timeframe in the 3700 block of Colorado Avenue, the 1900 block of N. Quincy Road, near Lynborough Court, the area of Anning Drive and N. Johnson Road, as well as in the area of Santa Fe Avenue and E. Zeering Road.
