Video: South Dakota Trapper Releases Ticked-off Mountain Lion
OutdoorHub Reporters 02.02.15
All Dan Casey wanted to do was teach his two sons a bit about trapping, but he ended up catching something bigger than he expected. The Rapid City native usually finds foxes or other small mammals locked up in the trap, which sat about 300 yards from his house, but earlier this month he discovered that he had accidentally caged a mountain lion.
“I wasn’t so much nervous, in all honestly I was more worried about getting the lion too nervous,” Casey told KEVN. “I didn’t want her hitting the cage getting hurt.”
Most people would hesitate at the thought of releasing a cooped-up mountain lion, but Casey said he is an experienced trapper and have been around wild animals all his life. The Rapid City Journal reported that Casey grew up on a fur farm and was constantly in the company of bobcats, foxes, and even wolves. Casey now works part-time as a hunting guide.
He still admitted that there was a certain sense of trepidation when he went up to the trap, especially after the cat took a few swipes at him from behind the cage.
My heart jumped a little bit,” Dan recalled. “I wasn’t really worried about getting mauled, but it definitely made me realize again that this was a wild animal.”
You can see the release below:
Officials from the Department of Game, Fish & Parks said that Casey did the right thing, but investigated the incident because the trapper was using a cage big enough for mountain lions, which the agency discourages. Hunting mountain lions in South Dakota is legal, but trapping them is not. The investigator later concluded that since Casey had a license to trap game and was using legal methods to trap on his property, no laws were broken. Officials from the department also said that accidental trapper-mountain lion encounters are not overly rare.
“It’s not entirely unusual,” said Game, Fish & Parks regional supervisor Mike Kintigh. “I would say that today most of those trappers are releasing lions by themselves than calling up. Four to five years ago we were getting called a lot when someone caught a lion and we can supply some techniques that are not available to the average person like tranquilizers.”
