Curious mountain lion seen on video watching children play in California neighborhood

A mountain lion was seen on video watching unsuspecting kids play in a California neighborhood.

Timothy Kerrisk says he went outside on Saturday evening to look for his cat and found a mountain lion in his front yard, watching children ride their bikes in Pacifica.

“I screamed at them to run inside,” Kerrisk wrote in a Facebook post. “It turned around, came at me, but then jumped over the gate and hid under the truck. I chased it off into the side yard and up the back hill.”

Kerrisk took a video of the incident and posted it online.

“I was terrified,” Kerrisk told NBC Bay Area. “I was really afraid for the kids and it was just pure adrenaline. I just came out and was like, ‘No, no, no, get, get, get.’ And I was just chasing it like you would like a regular cat, ‘Get out of here, get, get.’

“And luckily it turned and just kept going.”

Andrew Mooney, a neighbor, told KRON4 his surveillance camera captured footage of the mountain lion.

“The width of a 2020 Ford F-150 from nose to tail. It’s the biggest one that I’ve seen. We have a lot of sightings of mountain lions around here, and they all seem to be small bobcat size. This one was well fed,” Mooney said.

The Bay Area Puma Project, which is tracking the mountain lion, said animals have been roaming around after being forced from their habitats by wildfires, according to NBC.

“Residents should expect to see activity from this cat here and there, but there’s nothing abnormal or scary or threatening about its behavior thus far,” Zara McDonald, from the Bay Area Puma Project, told the TV station.

Another mountain lion was spotted in August lurking near a Pacifica resident’s front steps when the homeowner reviewed his security camera footage, ABC7 reported.

“At first glance, scrolling, I saw an animal. Possibly a cat or raccoon. Then checked again, and saw this long tail,” Mike Watkins told ABC. “I noticed it was a lot bigger.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2020 at 8:49 AM with the headline "Curious mountain lion seen on video watching children play in California neighborhood."