Multiple Sightings of U.Md. Cougar
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 1st, 2008
The Campus Cougar Alert of July 31st has been followed by more details of the sightings, through comments at Cryptomundo and media information.
It couldn’t have wandered here on its own. And even if it could, they don’t come here….First we want to find and identify it, then get the proper people to trap and remove it. If it is a cougar, it doesn’t belong in our highly urbanized area. They’re not predatory, but it’s still not good to have a cougar running around. I have all my cameras pointed in that direction and all my officers looking for it. ~ Capt. John Brandt, University of Maryland security
The Examiner of August 1 and July 31, carried articles by Joy Pavelski, Aleksandra Robinson, and Carrie Wells.
Police described the animal as “light tan and tawny brown, about four feet long with a four foot tail, and weighing about 50 pounds.”
The newspaper noted today that four people told campus police they saw a cougar prowling around the University of Maryland, College Park, on Wednesday, July 30, and Thursday, July 31, but 18 officers and news helicopters have not yet found any such critter.
Police stopped combing woods near the reported sightings when nothing surfaced — in flesh or on security cameras — during a full day’s search, but said they still hoped to capture the cat.
A 4-foot-long, tawny-brown, 50-pound cat lay sunning himself on the road at 6 a.m. Thursday when a college maintenance employee drove up, the man told campus police. He left his car and approached the animal. It stood, looked at him and walked away.
Upon receiving the maintenance employee’s report, campus police e-mailed students and staff an alert at 1:21 p.m. Thursday. Three other people then reported seeing the cat.
Two unnamed individuals later told police they had seen the animal Wednesday night. The third sighting came Thursday morning just after the maintenance worker made his report.
Thursday afternoon and evening, campus police and a Department of Natural Resources specialist searched woods on the northwest side of campus near the sports and recreation facilities, including Cole Field House and Comcast Center.
Students live right across the street. Many have left campus for the summer, but college staff, children attending summer camps and athletes competing in a swim meet all traversed that area Wednesday and Thursday.
Police encouraged anyone who has seen a large, catlike animal near campus since Thursday morning to not approach it but call University of Maryland campus police at 301-405-3555.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
this is a very interesting update article about a cougar on the loose on a college campus. maybe this cougar wants to take some college lessons to learn more lol. thanks bill green
OK, I do not think it is a cougar. I think it is just a big domesticated cat that is brown in color.
There have been reports in the news lately of cats being found, like the one in NJ that topped 40 pounds. Coincidence or not, the descriptions of the UM Cougar are at 50 pounds. That is not a cougar. Cougars weigh a lot more than that. And since eyewitnesses, especially college students tend to exaggerate things, the cat is probably in the 30-40 pound range. It is just a big house cat.
The descriptions don’t match of what we know of cougars. The area, which I live nearby is not what one would consider cougar territory. There are no animal sanctuaries or big cat sanctuaries nearby. College students don’t have enough life experience to guesstimate weight. And if they could guesstimate correctly, sometimes they exaggerate either intentionally or unintentionally.
When they finally do get a photo or when it is spotted by police or security, it will be a house cat. Remember the black cat that was spotted on CCTV near a gate. Everyone was thinking it was a black cougar. It turned out to be a house cat as well. Same thing here. Misindentification by witnesses because they lack experience or have never seen a house cat over 20 pounds, so it was foreign to them.
Keep us updated Loren!