Young mountain lion felled by Harley rider near Sturgis City Park

By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer | Sunday, August 15, 2004

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STURGIS -- It was arguably the busiest stretch of highway in South Dakota on Friday night, but that didn't stop a mountain lion from trying to cross S.D. Highway 34 near Sturgis City Park about 9:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, the young lion didn't make it across the road. It was struck by a motorcycle and was killed. The couple on the motorcycle, Victor Thomas Patine, 48, and Connie Jena Patine, 42, of Mesa, Ariz., suffered minor injuries, according to the South Dakota Highway Patrol.

Their Harley-Davidson tipped down onto the pavement after it struck the mountain lion, according to the report. The lion lay on the road dying from injuries sustained in the collision, according to witnesses.

Witness Jon Mendelsohn of Rapid City was riding in a car a short distance behind the Patines' motorcycle at the time of the accident. He said the lion ran from the north to the south across the highway before it was hit by the bike.

He probably wouldn't have believed his own eyes, but he and his group pulled over and saw the animal on the ground. By the time they left, the police were on the scene, and the animal lay dying on the road.

"It was something to see, that's for sure," Mendelsohn said.

Mike Kintigh, regional supervisor for South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks Department, said he, too, was skeptical when he was told a lion was hit by a motorcycle on the east edge of Sturgis.

But officers at the scene - including a state game warden moonlighting for the Meade County Sheriff's Office during rally week - said they had the body of the dead lion to prove it. So, he headed to Sturgis to pick up the body.

The lion was young and relatively small. Kintigh estimated that it probably weighed less than 50 pounds and was probably not more than a 1-1/2 years old. It was wearing a radio collar.

Kintigh said Saturday that he had not yet pinpointed the identity of the mountain lion based on its radio collar, but that it could be one of two lions collared this year:

n A young cat that was treed by a basset hound near Johnson Siding a couple of months ago. It was fitted with a radio collar at the time, but two to three weeks later, the researchers lost track of the animal.

n The survivor of a pair of young male lions collared earlier this year. One of the lions was killed by a vehicle in Boulder Canyon in July.

He said he didn't think it was odd that the young lion was in the Sturgis area during the very loud Sturgis motorcycle rally. In the woods away from the highway, it's probably relatively quiet, Kintigh said.

"It's kind of interesting to me that it got across the interstate ... with the traffic we've seen in the last couple of weeks," Kintigh said.

The animal was taken to the Game, Fish & Parks office in Rapid City, where it is being stored in the agency's walk-in cooler.

The number of mountain lion sightings, collisions with cars and even shootings seems to have surged in recent months this past year. In July, authorities killed four mountain lions that were injured, attacking domestic animals or frequenting residential areas.

Officials have also received a number of reports of mountain lions, but many turn out to be mistaken identification.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com