On Sunday, Whitefish Police encountered a Mountain Lion that ended up being shot by officers. Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial explains.

"At about 1:30 p.m. on Sunday evening, a dispatcher received a call from a citizen over on 6th Street, who stated that they pulled into their driveway and there was a mountain lion in their drive way," Dial said."The mountain lion didn't want to leave and they were alarmed and didn't want to get out of their car, so our officers responded."

The Mountain lion sauntered around the yard for a while before heading down a path. Police followed and say the lion just stared at them, apparently unafraid of their presence before climbing up a tree.

"The cat was obviously habituated not afraid of people," said Dial. "They made the decision to put it down. When you get a cat habituated like that, especially in a residential area, they can be a danger to young children and to pets and so we have the public safety in mind and unfortunately we had to put the cat down."

Fish and game recovered the Mountain Lion’s body on Monday. According to Dial, the lion was a juvenile female approximately 100 pounds.

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