A South Dakota resident has captured dawn footage showing a mountain lion attempting to cross a busy street and narrowly escaping oncoming traffic.
“I just saw it dart across the road on my way to work,” Dan Tiede said of the March 21 sighting in Rapid City, miles from the more cougar-friendly Black Hills. “I was pretty positive I knew what I saw, so I turned around to see if I could grab a photo or video.”
The rare footage shows the mountain lion pausing in Tiede’s headlights, then attempting to cross Jackson Blvd. in building commuter traffic.
“Look out kitty… lookout kitty! No, no no!” Tiede says, nervously, in the footage.
Tiede then express relief when the cat changes direction after almost being struck and bounds toward a quieter part of town.
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“Hopefully it found its way safely out of the city,” Tiede said, adding that he notified a local ranger about the sighting.
Mountain lions, or cougars, were listed as a state-threatened species in South Dakota in 1978, and removed from that listing in 2003. A limited hunting season is now allowed in the Black Hills.