Lion Found On Missing Man, Pinos Altos NM (not the first person to go missing from area)
Posted at: 06/20/2008 07:41:55 PM By: Eyewitness News 4 Print Story Email to a Friend Searches find body of missing man State police have found the body of a missing Grant County man and say he was eaten by a mountain lion. Robert Nawojski was reported missing Thursday by his brother. Friday, authorities found a mountain lion eating his remains near a Piños Altos Cemetary. At this time, Game and Fish is tracking the animal, but they do not know if the mountain lion actually killed Nawojski.
Mountain lion sought after man’s body found
The Associated Press
Article Launched:
PINOS ALTOS, N.M.—Searchers on Friday were looking for a mountain lion that is believed to have fed on the body of a 55-year-old man who’d been reported missing earlier in the week.
The lion was wounded by a game officer Thursday night, and searchers with dogs were looking for it near this mountainous southwestern
Authorities don’t know if the lion is responsible for the death of Robert Nowojski, whose body was found Friday morning about 80 yards from his home, Anglada said.
“It’s going to take an autopsy to actually determine how he died,” he said.
However, it appeared something had been feeding on the body, and authorities believe it was the lion, Anglada said.
Searchers called the state Game and Fish Department Thursday night after encountering a mountain lion while searching for Nowojski, whose brother reported him missing earlier that day. The brother said he had last been seen on Tuesday, Anglada said.
A game officer who spotted the lion shot and wounded it, said Anglada and Dan Williams, a spokesman for Game and Fish. State police, the game department and federal Wildlife Services, augmented by trappers and hunting dogs, were still searching for the wounded animal Friday afternoon around the rural community, Williams said.
“We’re out there working real hard to find that lion,” he said.
It’s rare for a mountain lion to kill a human. The last reported human killing by a lion in
June 20th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
How often are mountain lions known to scavenge on another kills? I have never heard of this. So if the lion was feeding on the guy then the animal probably killed him. Do others have more experience on lions?
June 20th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
We live a little over a mile, as the raven flies, from Pinos Altos. This lion has been showing itself on our road for a couple of weeks. Last week neighbors met it twice on morning walks; the second time it stalked them, even following them up their long, winding driveway. Wednesday morning a neighbor woke up to find it on his deck. A little later the man who had been followed started on his morning walk and found the lion waiting for him. There is a lot of game in the area - I counted nine deer on our back four a couple of days ago - so lack of game can’t be the reason. I’ll be interested to know what the animal’s autopsy finds.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am
DRW that is terrible. we were talking about this incident last night and felt that this lion had probably given some warning that it was present and it was allowed to continue to be a nuisance but felt it was probably missing pets or some such unprovable problem. But to have had it actively stalking people for two weeks and nothing done about it is a complete violation of your civil rights.
I know this is a dumb question but did anyone ever report this behavior to the game and fish? If so, they are probably liable for this mans death.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am
[...] Pesky Mtn Lions This happened 60 miles from my home! Never Mind the Flies, Mosquitoes, Gnats and stuff!!! Wolf Crossing Blog Archive Lion Found On Missing Man, Pinos Altos NM (not the first person to go mis… [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 9:42 am
Game and Fish was called after the stalking incident, tried unsuccessfully to call the lion, neighbors explained to us, with something that made a squeaking noise. Neighbors had been bouncing a squeaky toy for their adolescent Great Dane, felt they had inadvertantly called the animal to them. The stalking was put down to curiosity, but my husband did load a shotgun with three non-lethal beanbag shots, then three lethal shots. Husband was sick all week (mostly dehydration) and not up to walking, so loaned the gun to our neighbor, who used it Wednesday morning, hitting the lion in the flank with a beanbag shot. Whether more calls were made to Game and Fish Wednesday morning I don’t know. I do know that people were calling each other to report the two incidents.
I wasn’t sure that it was curiosity, connected it to something that happened in February in the mile or two between our road and Pinos Altos. As we heard via the grapevine, people were sitting on their porch, their cat sunning on a ledge, when a lion leaped up, ingnored the people and took the cat. That, in the context of the animal showing itself here, said to me that we were dealing with an animal who had no fear of humans.
My husband has one question - why isn’t someone from Game & Fish knocking on our door to warn us. Game & Fish said we’ll always have a resident lion, which we understand. This is rough country and we did move into their territory. However, we didn’t expect this.
June 21st, 2008 at 4:22 pm
We also have a resident lion and it is just never ever going to be alowed to behave that way. About twice a year we see lion tracks in our front yard it comes in the night and runs off and we never ever see it during the daylight hours.
We once had a small half grown lion move in and begin scavenging on a coyote carcass then it killed a goose then it killed a calf here at our home. We then noticed it was there and killed it. It was starving to death and had to go poor thing. But it was also a major danger to my kids and we just plain lucked out becuase it was here a week before we finally noticed it was a lion and finding the dead milk pen calf was the major clue I am ashamed to say.
Sister the scavenging is extremely rare it almost never happens and the lion very likely killed this poor man I am sure he was covered up near his home in a cool spot and it took some time to find him. Covering a kill is predatory behavior not scavenging behavior. He would have been found much sooner if he had simply died of natural causes and been scavenged.
I wonder if they will ever catch this lion. It is hot and they are hard to catch in the heat.
June 21st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
[...] *************** Posted at Wolf Crossing, Jun 20th, 2008 [here] [...]
June 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm
We lost our uncle who was loved very much by his family. He was autistic and loved the woods. We were there on Monday at his house with our kids thats scary enough! But makes me sick to my stomach is that we were never worned! The death certificate is being giving to us along with whats left of him on Monday. They called us today and told us the offical word is he was attacked and killied by the mountain lion on Tuesday night. He was probley standing on the rocks as he loved to star gaze! WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE HIM AND NEVER FORET HIM!
June 21st, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Aint’ it just wonderful? the way that G&F officials say that lion attacks are rare? Thankfully here in New Mexico they seem to be. However in California, where lion have been protected for thirty years, they manage to munch two or three people a year. Along with any number of cattle, sheep, horses, dogs, cats and gerbels. Guess what. California Fish and Game officials call attacks “rare” there too! Its obvious that all of the parasites running wildlife services around the country are reading from the same manual. No wonder “there has never been a wolf attack in the United States”.
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
NAWOJSKI FAMILY
I am so darned sorry about your uncle. What a terrible thing for a family to have to go through. Please accept my condolences.
This should never have been allowed to go on this long with an animal that was clearly habituated to humans and prey testing people.
Bless your hearts.
June 22nd, 2008 at 8:21 pm
What a shame and a terrible loss for the family and friends, and yes, the feds or the state should have warned the locals and set out for the lion.
Isn’t it sad that when a lion kills a human, we respond as we should. We feel pity for the victim and family and the gov doesn’t something about it, although much too late. When wolves kill, as in the Carnegie boy, there is a major cover up. The event is denied and everyone is wanting to protect the animal at the cost of risk to humans. Why are wolves protected, but not lions? They both can kill!
June 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
My 5-ry old son about a month ago was attacked by one in the Sandias also we believe it was a mountain lion. In the seconds it had him, it tore him up pretty good then ran with him in its mouth . We ran after it and got him back. NAWOJSKI FAMILY, we will have you in our prayers. My wife shivered when she heard this story because it is so fresh in our minds.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I have been helping Anthony Martin and his mother, Susan Campbell. Anthony was attacked on Dec. 6, 2007, first by a cat, then by the ‘crats (bureaucrats).
Susan faces felony charges of child neglect because she left Anthony playing with their pet dog, inside of a four foot fence, while she dashed for the bathroom due to intestinal flu.
While she was away for a few minutes the attack occurred. Then the ‘crats attacked both mother and child. Anthony was taken by the State while still in the Intensive Care unit and the mother was charged.
The Game Department sent someone to instruct the surgeon who saved the boy’s life that a cougar did not to the deed. H
How a surgeon took to medical instruction from a possum policemen will be discovered at deposition.
If you don’t mind, please email me as I would like to discuss the attack your son suffered, as I am preparing a research paper about cougar predation on humans and the predator behavior patterns observed before the attack.