Last fall, we had at least one and possibly two, mountain lions come into town.
I didn’t see them, as I live closer to the city center, but I have seen deer up in that northwest neighborhood while waiting for buses. It is a lovely and pretty wild area in the Coastal Range foothills.
Wild male cats have to leave their mother and get a territory when they become adults. It’s called dispersal, and my guess is that this was a dispersing male.
Was. Unfortunately, he seemed to like this neighborhood and started to kill livestock, so they had to put him down.
An adult mountain lion was also reportedly seen in Northwest Corvallis back then, but it apparently didn’t stay in the area. Things have been quiet on the wild-cat front here ever since.
More information:
- Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife: Living with cougars
- Feline Fam: 5 “Mountain Lion” Cities in North America
- Human-Cougar Conflict
Some lagniappe:
Meanwhile, in Florida…
Featured image: Gunnar Rathbun/Shutterstock
Flight To Wonder 