Ada County dispatchers say the first report came in just before 10 a.m. Wednesday. Sheriff’s deputies arrived moments later but were not able to find any mountain lions in the area. Deputies contacted Idaho Fish and Game officials to let them know about the sighting.

Another person called Fish and Game officials later in the day to tell them that she saw a mountain lion near the Glenwood Bridge just before 9 a.m. Wednesday. She said the animal was heading east.

There have been at least five mountain lions killed in the Boise area since 2004. Earlier this year, Boise police shot and killed a 2-year-old female cougar that had been making herself comfortable near the Boise State campus.

Fish and Game officials said that cougar became too much of a risk to the public when it followed the river from East Boise’s outskirts to near Downtown and Boise State.

Fish and Game officials have a fairly low tolerance for cougars in residential and urban areas — especially after those animals begin to equate urban areas as sources of food.

Though it is common for mountain lions to follow a river or irrigation canal into residential areas, it’s unusual for them to stick around.

Wildlife officials killed a 60- to 70-pound juvenile last September in the parking lot of Boise's Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center after it was seen near BSU and the Boise River for several weeks.

Fish and Game officials also shot and killed mountain lions in the Warm Springs Avenue area in 2004 and 2006, and police killed a mountain lion in an East Boise backyard in 2008.

Patrick Orr: 377-6219, Twitter: @IDS_Orr