When we think of “California”, at least in the general sense, we often find ourselves envisioning scenes from Venice Beach: Sand, surf, and scantily clad women, sipping on something fruity in the sunshine and wondering which of the 30 A+ taco shops within a 3 mile radius that they’ll be stopping at for aprés-beach snacks.
But California is a far more diverse place than that, with the northern portion of the state resembling the dense forests of of Washington or Oregon more so than the idyllic shorelines of the south.
And, as such, the wildlife in Northern California is far more diverse than the nightlife in SoCal.
Taxidermy trophy heads mounted on the interior walls of a California home attracted a hungry intruder, police say. A mountain lion jumped from a fence and broke through a glass window at a San Bruno home early Tuesday morning but was scared off by the homeowners, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Police in the San Francisco suburb say the animal, which has not been located, probably thought the large game heads, including an elk and a bison, were food. “While mountain lion sightings are fairly common throughout Northern California, this type of incident is out of the ordinary,” police said in a press release, offering tips for residents to reduce the risk of encountering a mountain lion.
The homeowner shooed the mountain lion out of the window that it used to break in, but only after emerging from the bedroom just after midnight to find the powerful creature on their couch.
The mountain lion appeared unharmed as it exited the home. Authorities have yet to locate the animal.
