Mountain lion found roaming grounds of Santa's Workshop
A mountain lion has been sighted around popular children's amusement park Santa's Workshop, located on Pikes Peak Highway. This sighting has caused owners and the Division of Wildlife to keep a close eye on public safety.
The owner of Santa’s Workshop speculates the big cat got in by climbing a tree on the park’s fence line. While the park is practically in the middle of the woods, in an area mountain lions call home, the timing of the mountain lion appearing at the park is overall, very strange.
“We’ve been open 60 years and we’ve never seen a mountain lion during park hours,” says park owner Tom Haggard.
This was true until the Ferris wheel operator called in to report that he spotted the mountain lion near the deer area, according the Haggard. Luckily, no trouble was caused by the big forest cat. The mountain left soon after it arrived. Most likely due to all the noise and people. Regardless, the sighting has left park owners and wildlife officials scratching their heads.
Ordinarily, mountain lions are nocturnal predators, who typically stay away from loud noises and populated areas. This mountain lion chose to visit mid-day. Haggard claims it’s not unusual to see a mountain lion around the parks grounds, but so early in the day was very strange.
The only reason the park owners and the wildlife officials could figure was Santa’s reindeer caught the mountain lion's attention.
Due to the proximity of the cougar to the deer on the parks grounds, Haggard and officials assume the puma was wandering by, smelled the deer and decided to check it out. But since the mountain lion saw the people and heard the noise, it didn’t stick around for too long.
The park has installed barriers to keep the public away from where the mountain lion was spotted. The barriers aren’t obstructing the park-goers experience, so they plan to keep it up for a while for the puma to lose interest.
If you'd like to learn more about mountain lion safety check out this page and learn some more!
