Cougar sightings are reported
BY SCOTT WARTMAN | SWARTMAN@NKY.COM
Campbell County residents are on the lookout after reports of a cougar sighting.

Seen near the AA Highway in Wilder and Poplar Ridge Road in Camp Springs, the cougar - or mountain lion, catamount, puma or panther - has generated more concern than physical evidence.

Other than a few calls and a sighting along the AA Highway and Interstate 275 on Friday, no other signs of the cougar have materialized in Wilder, said City Administrator Terry Vance.


The cougar has been spotted twice in the Camp Springs area.

Three weeks ago, Cathy Rust saw the cougar walk past a side door of the Northern Kentucky Saddle Club on Poplar Ridge Road. It walked behind the adjacent Campbell County Animal Shelter, Rust said.

"It was definitely a mountain lion," Rust said. "I was looking at the side door and seen the bushes moving. A tan-colored cat, a real big one, three times bigger than a house cat, came out. I watched it until it went around the back of the animal shelter."

"I was leery going home that night."

Another patron spotted it a week later, she said.

Officials with the animal shelter say Rust's sighting is the only cougar report they have received. Campbell County police say they haven't gotten any calls.

But some residents aren't taking any chances.

Staff at Sunrock Farm in Wilder have placed their horses and goats into a more secure enclosure and are walking out in groups to check on the sheep, said manager Shelley Mason.

So far, no tracks or signs of a mountain lion have been seen.

"None of the animals seem to be spooked," Mason said. "Normally sheep would be spooked with something like that out there. We are keeping an ear open."

Wildlife officials say a mountain lion is no cause for alarm. They are normally very shy of people, said John Dinon, director of animal conservation programs at the Cincinnati Zoo.

"It could be a single animal that wandered in from West Virginia," Dinon said. "I don't think that people should be alarmed. I don't think they should change their habits unless there are sightings in their neighborhoods."

The growing number of deer in the area could lure some of the predators into Northern Kentucky, Dinon said.

Should you come across the mountain lion and the cat sees you, make yourself look big by throwing your hands in the air and make a loud noise, he said.

"Thing to do is avoid them," Dinon said. "They will probably want to avoid you."

Boy it didn't take those cats long to go from Missouri to Kentucky !

Hopefully lions will make it all the way to Florida and enhance the population there with gene flow.....

IV

quote:

"It was definitely a mountain lion," Rust said. "I was looking at the side door and seen the bushes moving. A tan-colored cat, a real big one, three times bigger than a house cat, came out. I watched it until it went around the back of the animal shelter."

WOW that is HUGE!!

Sounds more like someone's jaguarundi got loose.

quote:

"It could be a single animal that wandered in from West Virginia," Dinon said.

????? Now that's new, cougars in WV? There've been reports of sightings all over the place and the game dept. folks always blow it off as mistaken identity, imagination, etc... sor to like when folks claimed to see coyotes thirty years ago...

Verifying the presence of cougars is easily done-- search for some literature on how to construct a "hair snare" (I used these in mesocarnivore studies throughout National Parks of the sw United States) collect the hairs and sen them to a DNA lab-- I can test hairs in about 3-5 days and $20-$30 per sample.

One thing I have found-- DNA doesn't lie.

IV

quote:

One thing I have found-- DNA doesn't lie.

Unless you're OJ!

MG

I will not be satisfied until we find mountain lions in New York's Central Park. Wolves there would also be good.