Cape Cod Cougar!

[Emily]

http://www.provincetownbanner.com/artic ... /11/1/2007

If any of you vacation on the Cape, bring your hounds! LOL

BANNER DAILY UPDATE

Chequessett cougar?

Banner Daily Update Sun. Nov. 4

By Kaimi Rose Lum
Banner Staff

WELLFLEET — Here on the outskirts of the territory of the legendary Pamet Puma, local residents may fail to be impressed by reports of strange large cats prowling about. But the sudden appearance of a mountain lion in the back yard surprised the pants off a renter on Hamblin Farm Road.

It happened about two months ago. According to Wellfleet Animal Control Officer Lorial Russell, the man was on the back porch talking on his cell phone when the wild cat came by.

“At the same time he noticed it, it noticed him,” Russell said. The beast sprinted off into the salt marsh behind the house, but not before the man was able to capture an image of it on the camera built into his phone.

Unfortunately, the photo did not come out very well, showing only “a beige stripe.” Russell looked for pawprints, but there was so much leaf litter on the ground that it was difficult to find them, she said.

Still, there appears to be no doubt in her mind that it was, indeed, a mountain lion. “He described it to a tee,” she said. Plus, she pointed out, this is not the first time she has dealt with large cat sightings. In recent years she’s responded to reports of giant cats lounging on tree limbs and, in one case, a lion-like animal skulking off Lieutenant Island Road.

Mountain lion is a synonym for puma, cougar and panther — a fierce feline that lives in the forests of North America and can be up to six feet long, not including the two-foot-long tail. Russell was skeptical, however, about the Hamblin Farm Road cat being related to the actual Pamet Puma — the creature that has reportedly stalked the Pamet Valley in years past. While this animal was tawny, she said, the puma was supposedly black.