3rd mountain lion killed in Idaho

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game earlier this month killed a mountain lion that entered a family’s chicken coop, marking the third time the agency has killed a mountain lion in Idaho’s Wood River Valley in recent weeks.

According to a news release, Fish and Game conservation officers responded to a home in the Woodside subdivision in east Hailey after a resident told Blaine County emergency dispatchers that they had heard “a disturbance” in their chicken coop Friday night. The resident looked in the coop and saw what they believed was a mountain lion, so they closed the coop door, trapping the predator inside.

Fish and Game officials found a juvenile mountain lion in the coop when they arrived. Officials said they looked for a zoo or other accredited facility to take the animal but couldn’t find one and later killed the mountain lion.

It’s the latest in a rash of mountain lion conflicts in the Wood River Valley, where Fish and Game has fielded dozens of reports of sightings this winter.

Last month, the agency killed two other mountain lions that had settled in at a residence. Fish and Game Magic Valley Region spokesperson Terry Thompson told the Idaho Statesman that the animals — a female mountain lion and two offspring — were “very content to live in people’s yards.”

After the adult lion hissed and bared its teeth at a homeowner while feeding on a kill in her front yard, the agency set out traps for the mountain lions. The adult and one of the offspring were captured and killed. The other offspring was not captured.

Thompson said it’s impossible to know whether the juvenile mountain lion killed last week was the remaining offspring.

While the Wood River Valley has seen mountain lion conflicts every winter for several years, this spring is the first time since the winter of 2019-20 that the agency has killed a mountain lion over human conflicts.