A cougar was caught on camera traipsing through a residential property just outside of Southwest Portland over the weekend.
Footage of the big cat, first obtained by KGW, shows the animal nonchalantly meandering past some garbage cans outside of a home in Dunthorpe, which is a small unincorporated community south of Portland and northeast of Lake Oswego.
No reports of attacks on animals or threatening behavior have been reported in the area.
On Tuesday, a high school student told KGW that he’d seen a cougar that morning in the Tryon Creek State Natural Area, near where the big cat was spotted over the weekend.
This high school student says he just saw a cougar about a mile SW of welcome center at Tryon State Park. Credible sighting just reported to ranger here. Could likely be same one on security camera at nearby home Sunday night. @kgwnews pic.twitter.com/rRTuLBgi9H
— Tim Gordon (@TimGordonPDX) July 16, 2019
Oregon is thought to be home to more than 6,000 cougars, most of which prefer to stay away from humans. With more people moving into cougar habitat, encounters between humans and mountain lions have been on the increase in recent years, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Threats posed by the animals came into sharp focus last year after two fatal attacks, one on a mountain biker in Washington and the other on a Gresham woman who was killed while hiking on Mount Hood.
Most experts say that cougars will avoid contact with humans, but if you are venturing into cougar territory, you should be prepared and know what to do should you come across one.
-- Kale Williams
503-294-4048
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