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By Ellen Fike, Cowboy State Daily

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials relocated a mountain lion late last week after it was finding hiding under a deck in a Denver suburb.

Around 9 p.m. Thursday, wildlife officers in Englewood tranquilized a mountain lion so they could remove it from under a resident’s deck. It was released Friday morning in a more appropriate habitat in a neighboring county, the agency said.

CPW posted footage of the animal being released to its Twitter account on Friday morning.

The 60-pound female mountain lion was estimated to be 2 years old and was described as being in good condition. 

“The reason we chose to go hands on with this mountain lion was because it was so deep in the heart of the city,” said CPW Area Wildlife Manager Matt Martinez. “We are glad this operation worked out so smoothly for that neighborhood and for the mountain lion. We’d like to thank the Englewood Police Department and Code Enforcement for assisting us in getting that lion out safely.”

CPW did have one credible report of a mountain lion in Centennial on July 6, roughly 10 miles from where the mountain lion was relocated out of Thursday night.

It is possible it could be the same mountain lion, which may have navigated northwest up Willow Creek and Little Dry Creek and into Englewood, but there is no way of determining whether that is the case.

Mountain lions do come into urban areas to find prey, which could range from deer in city greenbelts to skunks, raccoons or even pets or hobby livestock.

There have been fewer than a dozen mountain lion-related fatalities in North America in more than 100 years and most of those attacks involved young lions, which perhaps were forced out to hunt on their own, according CPW. Young lions usually prey on easy targets, such as pets and small children.

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