An African lion, or some other large feline predator, is loose east of Colorado Springs. Or maybe the only thing that's loose is tongues and what's roaming the plains is a lot of rumors and conspiracy theories.

Either way, last week's massive daylong search for what was reported to be an escaped lion near Calhan could be the birth of a local Bigfoot-style legend.

Residents toted six-shooters and rode the range ready to lasso the beast, while police helicopters circled overhead trying to spot it.

They found nothing, except a paw print that may or may not have been positively identified as that of an African lion.

The only proof of its existence is a blurry photograph of a large, maned - or possibly just shaggy - four-legged animal with a long tail looking back over its shoulder as it heads over a rise on the prairie never to be seen again.

But not forgotten.

In the week since, the lines have been drawn between those who want rational explanations and those who say there are things - and beasts - out there which defy explanation.

Wildlife experts, who say they were misquoted in identifying the paw print as an African lion's, are solidly on the side of the myth busters.

"If there were a lion of that size, it would have been spotted," said Michael Seraphin, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Sharon Harding-Shaw, who snapped the photo of the creature, is just as sure she saw a lion.

"I know what I saw," she said. "I'm 100 percent that was a lion."

Not only was it a lion, she said this week, but she heard it was captured at Big R, an agricultural supply store off U.S. Highway 24 in Peyton.

That rumor's been spreading; the El Paso County Sheriff 's Office has been fielding calls wanting details of how the lion was caught, sheriff 's Lt. Lari Sevene said.

Big R manager Ken Bachmann said he didn't know about any lion prowling the premises: "Believe me, the employees would've had a lot more to talk about if that were true."

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