Cougar Sighting at Maryland
The University of Maryland sent a campus alert today warning students of a "possible cougar" on the College Park campus, the Washington City Paper reports. The cougar (the nonhuman type) has been seen at least twice and was described as "light tan and tawny brown, about 4 feet long with a 4 foot tail, and weighing about 50 pounds."
Cougars are not indigenous to the state (or anywhere so far east of the Rockies, really), leading to some confusion among Maryland public-safety officers. "We have never dealt with this before," said a DPS captain. "We will get the occasional report of a coyote on campus, which usually will end up just being a fox."
So where did it come from? "Your guess is as good as mine," officials told the paper.
Tags: University of Maryland | animals
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Reader Comments
It wasn't a cougar
It was the Nittany Lion there to steal more recruits!
Cougars Amongst Us
A cougar was recently killed by Chicago police in a densely populated residential neighborhood about four miles from downtown Chicago. On autopsy the cougar was identified as having come from South Dakota and was thought to have traveled along railroad lines. So a cougar showing up at the University of Maryland is not impossible. Residents of College Park: don't leave your kitty-cat out tonight.
just wanted to point out that you're wrong:
In particular, the cougar was extirpated in eastern North America, except an isolated sub-population in Florida; the animal may be recolonizing parts of its former eastern territory.
It's in wikipedia so it must be true!
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