Another cougar sighting in Tri-Cities — this time in Pasco
Another cougar was spotted in the Tri-Cities in as many days, this time in Pasco.
Police received a call about the large cat near the intersection of Road 90 and Sandifur Parkway shortly before 2 a.m. Thursday.
Officers searched the area between Road 90 and Road 92 using a drone, but weren’t able to find the mountain lion.
They informed the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife about the sighting.
This is the second sighting in as many days. A mountain lion showed up in Kennewick late Tuesday night near the 200 block of East 41st Place.
It was seen three more times early in the morning before orchard workers discovered it on Game Farm Road before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Benton County sheriff’s office said on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office has been getting reports of the cougar showing up for about a week in residential areas in Kennewick and East Benton County.
Workers came across the mountain lion in an area they were working. The animal appeared to have a major injury to one of its eyes and did not move to escape people in the area, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
As deputies set up containment about the animal, it started to track two of the deputies.
“Deputies became concerned for the public’s safety due to the cougar’s actions, the presence of orchard workers and nearby homes,” according to the Facebook post. “Our deputies decided it was necessary to shoot and kill the cougar.”
Cougar attacks
While the wild cats may be big, they rarely want to have anything to do with humans, Staci Lehman with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife told the Herald after the sighting in Benton County.
Once they realize that they are not in the right habitat, they move quickly to find a way back to the appropriate area.
Cougar attacks on humans are extremely rare, the state’s cougar information website shows. In 94 years, as of 2018, there had been two encounters proving fatal for the person.
People should still be cautious if they see one, and not approach it.
If you encounter one on a trail, make yourself look big, be aggressive and throw something at the cat if it doesn’t back down. Do not run away.
The state doesn’t have an estimate on the number of cougars in the area, but with a lot of open land and rivers there are definitely big cats in the region, Lehman said.
“The beauty of Washington is that we live among wild animals and usually you never even know they are there,” he said.