Mountain Lion Forces Brentwood School Lockdown; Grinds Traffic To Halt

BRENTWOOD, CA — A mountain lion was spotted wandering along the Brentwood Country Club Thursday afternoon prompting a school lockdown and bringing traffic to a halt as wildlife officials spent hours trying to capture the animal.

First spotted in the morning, wildlife officials didn't tranquilize and capture the lion until 4:30 p.m. That's when officials found and the sedated animal in the backyard of a home. The lion was tied up and muzzled and placed in the bed of a pickup. It was not immediately clear where the animal would be taken.

A CBS2 report from the scene indicated that the animal began twitching in the rear of the truck before it was driven away, possibly suffering some type of medical emergency. Wildlife authorities appeared to be treating it in the truck.

The lion did not appear to be wearing a tracking collar, meaning it is not one of the dozens being tracked by federal wildlife officials in the Santa Monica Mountains.

For hours, the lion fled as wildlife officials came close, and it took cover in a wooded area near the golf course, according to California Fish and Wildlife Department spokesman Tim Daily.

As a safety precaution, the Los Angeles Police Department halted traffic around the country club, and the Los Angeles School Police Department placed nearby Brentwood Science Magnet on lockdown. The lockdown was lifted before school let out, according to an LAUSD spokeswoman.

Police were first called to the scene at Gretna Green Way and San Vicente Boulevard at about 10:30 a.m.

"Our intentions are to dart the animal and return it to the nearest suitable habitat," Daily said at the time.

He warned residents to "make sure your pet is indoors until the mountain lion is secured or removed."

"If you are living near there, don't get too curious that you wander over and get too close," he added.

Mountain lions don't seek out humans, but they are dangerous when cornered, said Daily.

For years, an older male lion has been known to claim as his territory an island of land in the Brentwood area closed off from other Santa Monica Mountain lion habitats by the San Diego (405) and Ventura (101) freeways.

In 2019, a young lion known as P-61 survived a 405 Freeway crossing to the relatively small Santa Monica Mountain territory dominated by a larger lion. Even as wildlife experts celebrated P-61’s first successful crossing, they knew he’d have trouble in his new home in the hills around Brentwood.

Sure enough, P-61 died trying to make it back across the freeway not long after his initial crossing. Security footage captured from across the community showed why. The older lion could be seen stalking the newcomer through the deserted streets of Brentwood at night eventually driving P-61 back onto the freeway, where he was struck by a car and killed.

See Also: Video Shows Lion Stalked By Larger Lion Before Fatal 405 Crossing

It wasn't immediately clear if the lion wandering through Brentwood Thursday was the same one that stalked P-61 in 2019.

State wildlife would not say officials if the lion would be captured and returned to its territory in the hills above Brentwood or if it would be relocated to a safe territory across the freeway.

City News Service contributed to this report.