LANDER -- A man in a residential development near Hoback Junction went outside to sweep snow off of his covered boat last week, when his dog spotted a mountain lion hiding under a pickup in the garage.

The dog was crouching and barking at the rear of the vehicle, Gil Hawxhurst said, but it was impossible to see what was under the truck from the driveway.

"I went inside and peeked around the front end, and I saw a brown hump and a real long tail," he said. "And I told the dog, 'That's not your normal house cat.'"

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department, in cooperation with researchers from Craighead Beringia South, tranquilized the adult female cougar with a dart gun and pulled her out. She was still peering out from under the truck when they arrived, but they were unable to scare her out of her hiding place.

"People shouldn't be alarmed by this," said Mark Gocke, spokesman for the Game and Fish Department. "I just hope people understand this is very unusual. It's rare to see a mountain lion in a residential area like this."

Howard Quigley, leader of Craighead Beringia South's Teton Cougar Project, was called to the scene when officials realized the cat had a radio-telemetry collar.

Quigley's team had captured the cougar in November 2006, and had been tracking her, periodically, ever since.

It's unclear how or why the cougar ended up in the garage, Quigley said.

The last time his team had tracked her was in December, when she was near the confluence of Crystal Creek and the Gros Ventre River, about 20 air miles away from the residential development, on the opposite side of the peaks of the Gros Ventre Mountains.

"This cat seemed to have a well-defined home range in the Crystal Creek drainage. We're not sure why she would make such a drastic move, let alone end up in a garage," Quigley said.

Game and Fish biologists say increased snowpack this winter has driven more deer and elk to lower elevations, and into developed areas, and it's logical to assume that some predators have followed the animals down, Gocke said.

Game and Fish, in concert with Quigley, decided to relocate the cougar to the Salt River Range southeast of Afton, Gocke said. Some female lions had been legally hunted and killed there recently, and biologists believe there should be an open home range available for her there.

Environment reporter Chris Merrill can be reached at chris.merrill@trib.com.