BELLE FOURCHE - GF&P officers killed a mountain lion treed by a terrier Monday in an area two or three miles east of Belle Fourche with near homes and livestock.

Game, Fish & Parks conservation officer Bill Eastman of Belle Fourche said Tuesday that the lion was near a flock of 60 pregnant ewes, less than a quarter-mile from four homes and also near where horses and cattle were grazing.

"This cat fell into the criteria of having to be destroyed," Eastman said.

The decision to take the two-year-old male was made by state Game, Fish & Parks officials in Rapid City and Pierre, Eastman said, "so the department ended up putting the animal down."

Eastman said the animal appeared to be in good health. Two-year-old lions generally weigh between 100 pounds and 110 pounds, according to GF&P officials.

As a younger male, he said, the cat met the typical description of a "mover" - a young lion that could battle an older male for territorial rights but instead moved to another territory.

There had been several reports the past several weeks by rural Belle Fourche residents who suspected lion activity, based on their cattle's behavior or sounds they described as lion-like.

The cat killed Monday was reportedly treed by a small dog about 4:15 p.m.

"The guy heard his dog barking," Eastman said. He said the resident saw the dog under a downed tree - "more like a log with a branch sticking up" - and the lion was in the tree.

"For the mountain lion, that dog would have been about two bites," Eastman said.

A Butte County deputy sheriff responded to the call first and confirmed that the treed cat was a lion. The GF&P wildlife division also responded, and as the cat remained treed about 60 yards from its human watchers, the department made the decision to kill it.

"There are times when things work right to tranquilize and remove a cat, but this cat probably would have come back into familiar territory," Eastman said.

Eastman said that history makes a case for young "movers" to be a danger to livestock.

Two years ago, Eastman said, a lion killed sheep near Fruitdale, east of Belle Fourche, and the department issued a kill permit. That same year, a lion had been seen inside Belle Fourche, and another kill permit was issued. Both permits expired without another lion sighting.

Six years ago, he said, a lion near the Belle Fourche Reservoir at Orman Dam - eight miles east of Belle Fourche - had killed sheep, apparently for play rather than just for food.

The carcass of the lion killed Monday was taken to Rapid City for analysis and will be sent to a laboratory at South Dakota State University for further study to determine its age and genetics.

Eastman said there hadn't been many confirmed reports of lions near Belle Fourche in several years, although one report early this winter was considered "unconfirmed but probable."

Rep. Betty Olson, R-Prairie City, has recently talked about lions stalking ranchers and killing livestock in areas north of Belle Fourche and says a lion was struck by a car only 10 miles from her ranch home.