Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home police posted warnings Friday, Oct. 12, regarding cougar sightings north of Main Street between 9th and 18th avenues.
“We’ve had several sightings on the north side of Main Street between the railroad tracks and Tamarack Street,” said Community Services Officer Gina Riley. The area police are targeting also extends between 9th and 18th avenues.
Police posted notices on telephone poles urging anyone seeing a cougar to immediately call the police at (541) 367-5181.
Two callers reported seeing cougars, Riley said. One saw a cougar, and the second saw a cougar with two cubs in the area of Northside Park and Poplar Street. Others reported finding heavy tracks. The sightings were reported between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
“If you see the cougar, don’t go near her,” Riley said. The big concern is that it is a mother who may be protecting her cubs. “If you can keep them in sight, great. Watch what direction they’re going.”
Police have notified Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and are following instructions from the agency.
After a sighting, officers will respond immediately to evaluate the situation, Riley said, and ODF&W will take action.
“She’s bedding down somewhere,” Riley said. “They want to go trap her and remove her.”
Elsewhere in the area, Holley resident Chanz Keeney said what he believes was probably a cougar killed a calf on his property Thursday afternoon.
He located the calf at about 5 p.m., and it was still warm, Keeney said. “I think we we spooked whatever killed it.”
The calf had a wound to the right hind leg and what appeared to be scratch marks on its left flank.
Keeney said he called 9-1-1 and was referred to the Oregon State Police. Oregon State Police notified the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and contacted a trapper, who spent three days trying to capture the cougar.
Keeney and the trapper were initially unable to find any bite marks to the calf’s neck, Keeney said, which is typical of a cougar attack.
Based on that, the trapper told him it may have been a bear or a dog, Keeney said.
Noting the scratch marks on the calf, Keeney thinks it’s probably from a cougar, and Monday evening, he located possible marks in thick fur around the neck.
“I’m probably going to put some trail cams up so I can see what’s running through there,” Keeney said. He said a couple of cougars were trapped in the area a couple of years earlier.
State Rep. Sherrie Sprenger and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will host a town hall on cougars at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at Jim Riggs Community Center, 880 18th Ave. Community members interested in discussing the issue of the apparent growing numbers of cougars are encouraged to attend.