Mountain lion found lurking in Desert Hills near Havasu

LAKE HAVASU CITY – A mountain lion was the last thing Marge Ware expected to see staring at her through her backyard window Friday night.

“We always see lots of little animals, but a lion? I was shocked,” Ware said.

Her sister was in town to visit, and they were sitting at the dining room table, looking out into the backyard on Friday evening around 7 p.m. They live on Pero Drive in the Desert Hills area.

“We were watching the birds and bunnies when suddenly, they were startled and all scattered,” she said. Then, a large mountain lion came trotting around the corner, stopped for a moment to stare back at them, then moved right along.

Marge and her husband, Greg Ware, called the sheriff’s office. Two deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office responded to their call and got to work.

“The deputies did locate a rather large mountain lion in a fenced yard,” Sergeant Kyler Cox of the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said. “They got people safely off the streets and into their homes and moved the animal along.”

Greg Ware said the mountain lion was at least three feet tall and “bigger than anything you’d see at the zoo or Bearizona.”

Marge Ware said she estimated it at 160 to 165 pounds and about five feet long, not including the tail. According to Marge, its shoulders sat above the height of her inflatable hot tub in the backyard.

Marge believes it’s been lurking around the neighborhood for about a week. Last weekend, she noticed a stack of railroad ties in her backyard and fallen over, and she knew someone – or something – had been through the area. Two days ago, another neighbor posted on an app called Nextdoor – which allows neighborhoods to stay connected with each other – that they had seen a big animal run through their backyard around midnight. Others have posted video of the cat recently, as well.

“It doesn’t look scrawny or sick or hurt at all,” Marge said. “It was absolutely beautiful, and looked extremely healthy.”

Because of its massive size, Sgt. Cox said it “could have been a danger” to the neighborhood. They believe the animal has “moved on from the area.”

If you ever happen to come across a wild animal like a mountain lion, Cox said you should stay inside, secure your home, and call 911 or the Arizona Game and Fish Department. The best thing to do is leave it alone, and definitely “try not to get close and take pictures.”