New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
Media contact: Dan Williams, (505) 476-8004
Public contact: (505) 476-8000
dan.williams@state.nm.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, JUNE 25, 2008:

WOUNDED MOUNTAIN LION CAPTURED, KILLED NEAR PINOS ALTOS

PINOS ALTOS -- A mountain lion that may have killed a Pinos Altos man was captured in a snare and killed Wednesday morning.

The lion was an average-sized adult male weighing approximately 125 pounds. It had four bullet holes in it that appeared to be from buckshot. A Department of Game and Fish officer had shot and wounded a lion with buckshot June 19 near the home of 55-year-old Robert Nawojski.

Nawojski was killed by a mountain lion June 17 or 18 near his small mobile home in a wooded area of Pinos Altos north of Silver City. His partially eaten and buried body was found June 20 near a rock ledge about 60 yards from his home where he liked to bathe and shave.

The lion was caught in a U.S.D.A. Wildlife Services snare about a half-mile from the rock ledge where Nawojski was believed to have been attacked. The lion was killed and its body will be taken to the New Mexico State Police Crime Lab for a necropsy.

Wildlife Services agents and Department of Game and Fish officers with hounds were still searching for a second lion reported to be in the area. "But we're confident the lion we caught last night was the one wounded by our officer Thursday night," Department Officer Leon Redman said.

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