A cougar that has been seen in a wooded area on the west end of Philomath has apparently high-tailed it out of town.
The large cat, an animal that’s also referred to as a mountain lion, was first spotted April 28 in the vicinity between Dollar General and Philomath Family Medicine. More sightings occurred in the hours that followed to spark an operation involving the city and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Deer that had been hit by vehicles may have served as the attractant to bring the cougar into town.
“There were a couple of road-struck deer that were right in that general area, one of which was still kind of up on the roadway and the other had been dragged off the roadway into the bushes,” Philomath Chief of Police Dave Gurski said.
City employees were dispatched to clean up the roadkill.
“Public Works went out to pick up the road-struck deer that was close to the highway,” Gurski said, “and they noticed that they could see a cougar from the roadway in the bushes.”
An officer finishing up his graveyard shift drove to the area and captured the cougar on camera watching him from the bushes.
“Later on in the afternoon, we went out with ODFW and they brought a trapper out,” Gurski said. “They removed the carcass that had been pulled into that wooded area and removed that as a possible food source.”
Gurski said that a day or two later, he met with two ODFW biologists.
“We went out there and set up trail cameras … to see if we could capture any more photographs or activity with that cougar in the same area,” Gurski said.
ODFW picked up the trail cameras Wednesday and found no further photographic evidence or activity of the cougar.
Seeing cougars in the region are not that uncommon but most sightings occur outside the city limits.
“They get seen in more rural environments out in the county more frequently,” Gurski said, adding that police hadn’t received any calls at the station about cougars but had noticed activity on social media.
“There have been a couple of folks posting about some potential cougar behavior or sightings up in the Starlight (Village) area but I haven’t heard anything more about that,” Gurski said. “When I talked to the biologist, he said he had heard two reports but they weren’t firsthand reports.”
Just a few days before the cougar sighting, police responded to a black bear that had been seen in Philomath.
“They actually commented that it was fairly unusual,” Gurski said when asked if he had talked to ODFW about wild animals venturing into populated areas on a more frequent basis.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reports on its website that Oregon has about 6,000 cougars statewide with the largest concentrations in the Cascade Range and Blue Mountains. For those who see a cougar, it can be reported by calling 971-673-6000.
ODFW has all type of information about living with cougars in Oregon in a brochure that can be accessed online.
