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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Officers Kill Mountain Lion that Might Have Attacked NM Man
Associated Press
PINOS ALTOS — A mountain lion that might have been the animal that attacked and killed a Pinos Altos man has been snared and killed.
The 125-pound male puma nabbed Tuesday night had four bullet holes, apparently from buckshot, said Dan Williams, a state Department of Game and Fish spokesman.
The animal was shot to death Wednesday morning, and its body will be sent to the state crime lab for a necropsy, he said.
Authorities are not yet sure whether the lion is the one blamed for the death of Robert Nawojski, 55. An autopsy confirmed that a mountain lion killed Nawojski, whose brother had reported him missing.
Nawojski was killed June 17 or 18 near his mobile home in a wooded area of Pinos Altos. His partially eaten and buried body was found Friday about 60 yards from his home on a rock ledge where he liked to bathe and shave.
A state game officer had shot and wounded a mountain lion with buckshot June 19 near Nawojski's home.
Officers from state and federal agencies were searching Wednesday for a second cougar reported in the area.
"But we're confident the lion we caught last night was the one wounded by our officer Thursday night,'' said Leon Redman, an officer with Game and Fish.
The mountain lion was caught in a U.S. Wildlife Services snare about a half mile from the ledge where authorities believe Nawojski was attacked.
The last previous reported human killing by a cougar in New Mexico was in 1974 when an 8-year-old Arroyo Seco boy was killed by a 47-pound female mountain lion.
Rick Winslow, a carnivore biologist with the state agency, estimates New Mexico has between 2,000 and 3,000 mountain lions.
Mountain lion sightings are not uncommon around Pinos Altos.
"I've seen several over the years, and seen their tracks,'' said Tom Barry, who lives across the road from Nawojski. He saw one last winter scratching at a neighbor's chicken coop.
"We both stood our ground. ... I said 'shoo,' and it went away,'' he said.
Residents who live on a road behind Nawojski's home have reported recent lion sightings. Tom Bates, who lives on the road about a mile south of Pinos Altos, said he found a cougar "just hanging around'' next to his garbage cans one night two weeks ago.
"It was really a shock,'' said Bates, who described the animal as "totally docile.''
He said he called the Game and Fish Department "just to let them know.''
Winona Tavernier said she spotted a cougar lingering near an outbuilding about two weeks ago, "hanging around closer than we thought it should be.''
Jack Griswold, who takes daily walks along the road, had three encounters with a lion the week before Nawojski was killed.
On June 12, he was walking his dog about a 1 1/2 mile from Nawojski's home when he came across a snarling lion. He grabbed the dog and walked away. When he was walking his dog in the same area two days later, a lion followed them home and up their driveway.
"That bothered us a lot,'' he said. But he said he attributed the cougar's behavior to the dog's squeaky toy that sounds similar to a game call.
A Game and Fish officer gave Griswold rubber bullets to shoot if the lion returned, and he used them on a cougar two days later near his home.
"It hid behind a boulder and watched us. ... I went up the driveway and got my gun,'' he said. He fired twice and scared the animal off.
Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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