Residents of rural Lompoc had noticed a small mountain lion cub in their neighborhood, but it wasn’t until a postal worker saw her in the same place two days in a row that he decided something had to be done.
“That’s when it became evident that it wasn’t OK,” said Dori Villalon, operations manager of Santa Barbara County Animal Services. Her agency took in the cougar cub on Wednesday afternoon.
The cub was scheduled to be picked up by Fish and Wildlife Thursday morning to be transported to a rehabilitation facility in San Diego.
While baby animals should generally be left alone, the cub was observed for 24 hours and her mother never came back, Villalon said.
The postal worker, who Villalon did not name, transported the wild cat from Cebada Canyon Road to the shelter by himself, something that Villalon does not recommend. In general, she said, when people come across an abandoned wild animal they should call the experts.
The cub arrived at the Santa Barbara County animal shelter at around 2 p.m. Wednesday.