--- title: Possible Lion Roaming Around Norwalk, Calif. description: Experts can't identify the animal for sure canonical: https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-03T19:10:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:08.856Z og:title: Possible Lion Roaming Around Norwalk, Calif. og:description: Experts can't identify the animal for sure og:url: https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Possible Lion Roaming Around Norwalk, Calif. twitter:description: Experts can't identify the animal for sure twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Mysterious Cat-Like Creature on the Loose in Southern California  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 3, 2014 7:10 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 3, 2014 7:10 PM UTC A large cat that appears to resemble [a lion is roaming the streets ](https://www.facebook.com/cityofnorwalkca)of Norwalk, Calif., this weekend. The city warned Thursday that a resident’s security camera captured what looked like a mountain lion walking around in the early hours of the morning last Tuesday. But on Friday, two experts from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that the beast was definitely not a mountain lion, though they “still cannot definitively identify the type of animal.” Craig Packer, a professor at the University of Minnesota Lion Research Center watched the security footage and [told the Los Angeles _Times_](http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-african-lion-possible-norwalk-video-20140801-story.html) that “it certainly does look like an African lion. It’s not a cougar.” The founder and executive director of the Project Survival Cat Haven, Dale Anderson, also told the paper it looked like an African lion, though expert opinions vary: a founder of another wildlife sanctuary thought it could be a leopard, while a Department of Fish and Wildlife expert believed it could have just been a dog. Anderson said that, if the animal is indeed a lion, it likely had been kept as a rare pet. “If a lion is out there like that,” he said, “it shouldn’t be happening.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/"},"headline":"Mysterious Cat-Like Creature on the Loose in Southern California","datePublished":"2014-08-03T19:10:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:08.856Z","description":"Experts \"still cannot definitively identify the type of animal\"","url":"https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3076420/possible-lion-norwalk-california/","name":"Mysterious Cat-Like Creature on the Loose in Southern California"}}]}] ```