BOISE – A Horseshoe Bend woman says a mountain lion killed one of her miniature donkeys last week.

“I woke up last Friday went outside and the animals were acting kind of strange,” said Lynn Gramkow, who lives about three miles north of town. “When you see the pictures I immediately knew it was a cougar.”

Todd Grimm, western district supervisor for Wildlife Services, confirmed that the attack was indeed made by a mountain lion. Officials have set up two traps in the area so they can possibly remove the animals from the population.

"Hopefully we get this resolved quickly," Grimm said.

The supervisor said there's an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 mountain lions in the state. But even with the recent news, he said residents in the area should not be worried.

"I don't think there's a reason to be more concerned than usual," he said. "There have been no threats against people."

The miniature donkey, named Mariah, was still alive but badly injured with bite, and claw marks on a majority of its body. Gramkow took the donkey to an area veterinarian, which cleaned up Mariah’s wounds. On Tuesday morning, however, the donkey began having seizures and died in an animal caregiver's arms.

“There were fang marks behind her left ear – one of them clear to the bone,” Gramkow said. “She was torn up pretty bad.”

She believes Mariah and the other mules on her property probably stood up to the cougar.

“We still don’t know how she got loose,” she said. “We think the other two mules maybe helped her out – they’re known to do that.”

One of Gramkow’s goats is also missing.

“We can’t find even a hair,” she said.

Ed Mitchell, Idaho Fish and Game spokesman, says he heard about the incident in Horseshoe Bend, and is not surprised.

“Idaho has a very healthy population of mountain lions throughout the state,” Mitchell said.

Although cougars are rarely seen, encounters like this will most likely continue every once and a while.

“The only thing that’s changed over the decades is that you have more people moving into the wild land areas when the big carnivores have always lived there,” Mitchell said. “They’re (home owners) are appalled when something like this happens.”

Gramkow, along with her husband, live on Porter Creek Road north of town. The news about the attack has people talking – one of Gramkow’s neighbors also spotted the cougar, but this time saw two cougar kittens also roaming the area.

She says she thinks the cougar that may have attacked her donkey may be a mother and is teacher her kittens how to hunt.

“It was a crushing blow,” she said. “It’s sickening to wake up to one of your beloved pets go through this – we lost a treasured part of our lives.”