In late October, a coyote trapper south of Regent found a male mountain lion in one of his traps. Game and Fish responded and sedated the animal, put a GPS collar and ear tag on it and released it, he said. About a month later, they found the collar but no mountain lion.

"(The mountain lion) was working his way kind of northeast of the location of where he was trapped, and we kind of kidded a little bit, 'It looks like he’s headed for Bismarck,'" Williams said. "Well, lo and behold, this is that lion."

The mountain lion was shot rather than tranquilized on Tuesday to protect the public, according to Williams.

"In a city situation, when an animal is very amped up the way it is, we’re essentially not willing to take the risk of darting that lion and then of course that lion taking off somewhere," he said. "And it takes a period of time for that sedation to kick in."

Williams also said Game and Fish's stance is to not relocate predators.