i said "clear canid tracks". well, all i could tell was that they weren't human, really, and that they were quite large. clear, large paws. but could i tell the difference between wolf/coyote tracks and cougar tracks? no. but, i mean, coyotes wouldn't be that unusual. a cougar, on the other hand...
i just had a bad feeling about going out for a smoke tonight, so i had one in my back room instead. i looked out the window and saw a rather large cat zoom by on the sidewalk...much, much larger than the one that hangs out around here...
...and not the same colour. yes, it was dark. and it admittedly seemed to have more of that bobcat grey than that cougar peach. but it also had a long tail, which bobcats and lynxes don't have.
is this even possible? are there cougars around here? that's a tricky question. apparently, the answer is an emphatic yes, but it's not entirely clear what their range is or where they've come from. the official story is that they were hunted to extinction in this region well over a hundred years ago, but there have been consistent unconfirmed reports of cougars in the region basically ever since. and there have been confirmed reports in southern ontario over the last few years, with some people believing that they're migrating back into the area, others believing that some "pets escaped" and still others arguing that they never really were extinct in the first place. there have apparently been numerous sightings in the waterloo region, recently.
i didn't get a really good look - not good enough to state it was really a cougar with any certainty. those tracks are long gone. and i'm not going back out until the sun comes back up.
but i'll have to check for tracks in the morning.
i think it would be rather remarkable to confirm a cougar sighting in an urban area like this.
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/news/cougar-sighted-near-ganatchio-trail
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/alleged-cougar-spotted-in-southern-ontario-1.1252531
it seems like grey cougars are a thing that exists. hrmmn. that was my largest point of skepticism.
i think i saw a cougar on my front lawn. creepy.
