Man Has Late-Night Encounter With Mountain Lion In Russian Hill

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Luis Fernando does enough late-night walks with his dogs to know that encountering other animals along his route isn’t uncommon.

So when the 34-year-old Fernando spotted some movement on the sidewalk when he was driving back to his home in the Russian Hill neighborhood around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, he didn’t think that much about it. But when Fernando noticed a different type of eyes staring into the headlights of his car near the intersection of Lombard and Leavenworth, he quickly realized that this wasn’t just another chance meeting with the raccoons and coyotes he has seen before.

Instead, what Fernando spotted was a small mountain lion – a sighting that was confirmed Tuesday morning by San Francisco Animal Care and Control. Before realizing what was staring him down, Fernando took out his phone and shot a 10-second video – only three or four seconds on which he needed to know what he was looking at.

Fernando, who is an avid hiker, makes a practice to know what kind of wildlife he might see on his ventures outside of the city. While he has studied up a bit on mountain lions, he has never seen one. Until Tuesday morning.

“At that point, I was still in shock and thought, ‘Woah, this is nothing I expected,’” Fernando told Patch in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Fernando, who was out visiting a sick friend after he had earlier finished up with an online class, figures his car was parked approximately 50 feet from where the mountain lion was. Fernando said he got into his car, turned onto the street and then saw the cat.

"The first thing I thought that this was a very close encounter," he said.

Fernando added: “It’s very weird to see a mountain lion – even in the wild because they’re always hiding.”

Knowing that people might be out walking in the area, Fernando contacted the San Francisco Police Department to alert officers of the sighting. About a year ago, a mountain lion was captured near Fernando’s home, which is about four blocks where Tuesday morning’s sighting took place. So he wanted to make sure that residents in the area were on alert after he lost sight of the mountain lion after following the cat for about a block.

After giving information about the mountain lion to police, Fernando said that animal control called him at about 6 a.m. After he sent animal control officials photos and a video of the encounter, which helped determine what he had seen was actual a mountain lion. Animal control said they would contact the police department, which Fernando said he hopes will keep his neighbors safe despite the rarity of what he saw on his drive home.

"It's highly unusual for a mountain lion to be in these areas because it’s quite young and very inexperienced," said Deb Campbell, a spokesperson for SF Animal Care & Control, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Usually when families have litters, they disperse to find their own territory. This one probably went a little early and ended up here and doesn’t know how to get out."