Tracking Down Information on Mountain Lion Sighting - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Tracking Down Information on Mountain Lion Sighting

Mandan police with assistance from other wildlife agencies, did a search of a tree row on Sunday afternoon and came up empty.

What we've learned is that tracking down information on possible sightings can be as hard as tracking the actual cougar.

There's a coulee near Ft. Lincoln Elementary in Mandan where the alleged mountain lion was spotted, but without an actual cat, it's hard to prove.

"Like a house cat or any cat, my curiosity got the best of me, I just had to go over there because there was a group gathering." says Terry Steinwand, director of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

A possible sighting in this neighborhood is note-worthy because it's an urban area, there's an elementary school nearby and the North Dakota Game and Fish director lives less than a block away.

"Watched them basically corridor off the whole wooded draw, between police officers, wildlife services people, watched from a safe distance which is across the street and seen an individual go down with a dog right in the middle of it, within five minutes a pretty large orange cat comes flying across the street." says Steinwand.

Sunday around four o'clock, a resident called police about a mountain lion in this area.

Mandan police chief Dennis Bullinger says one of his officers, who is an avid hunter, is sure he saw a mountain lion.

"It's entirely possible that's what he thought he saw, but evidently it wasn't." says Steinwand.

North Dakota Game and Fish director Terry Steinwand says there is a lot of wildlife in the area, but he does not believe that it was a big cat.

"It's possible, I just don't know with the way that thing was cornered off, how anything could have gotten through, again, entirely plausible with the habitat and food items there, chances are, if it was in fact a mountain lion, which we don't think it was, it was just moving through." says Steinwand.

So is this incident being downplayed, or blown out of proportion?

"You never discount one of these sightings, you can't because if it was a mountain lion, especially in a setting like that, we have to get rid of it for public safety." says Steinwand.

There's no school at Ft. Lincoln school, but the sighting does raise questions about the wildlife roaming the region.

Whether it was a mountain lion or not, the Game and Fish director says they would rather diligently check every call than have a one in a million attack in the area.