It’s A Jungle Out There For Wildlife Hunters

Nancy “Lion Queen” Sattin isn’t ready to admit defeat.

But the county animal control director quit devoting her days to tracking an African lion about the time a nervous Spokane woman reported a lion nose print on her picture window. The smudge, it turned out, was on the inside.

Sattin isn’t the only exasperated wildlife hunter.

Game officials plan to pull bear traps planted in north Spokane County if the grizzly spotted there doesn’t surface by week’s end.

The bear has eluded searchers since it was seen three weeks ago on a gravel road near Clayton - Spokane County’s first confirmed grizzly sighting in 100 years. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife workers suspect the bear has left the area, said Madonna Leurs, agency spokeswoman.

Still, authorities are being swamped with calls from people who believe they’ve seen the grizzly or heard the lion roar.

A bicyclist on Aubrey L. White Parkway flagged down a sheriff’s deputy Monday, convinced he’d heard the roar of an African lion.

Deputies found nothing, said Sattin, dubbed “Lion Queen” by amused friends and co-workers. She has supervised an on-again, off-again search since a woman driving to work in west Spokane said a 500-pound lion had walked up to her car Wednesday.

“I want to find it,” said Sattin. “I want it to end.”

That sentiment is shared by Bob Smoldt, the animal control officer who was on call Saturday when an elderly woman reported the mysterious nose print.

At first, he had trouble convincing the woman a lion wasn’t apt to roam the bustling area near the North Division “Y.” Then Smoldt had an idea. He licked his finger and wiped the glass from inside the house. The smudge disappeared. Smoldt smiled.

“I’m not really an expert on nose prints,” he said. “But we do know the lion definitely did not get inside her house.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo