Cougar Cameras Come Up Empty 3 Days After Animal Killed
Cougar sightings have increased on the Oregon Coast.
Wildlife officials are still searching for cougars near the area where hiker Diana Bober was fatally attacked.
They haven't seen any signs since Friday, when the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife spotted a female cougar on a trail camera near where Bober's backpack was found. By the end of the day, they had tracked the animal with hounds, treed and killed it.
Although mountain lions are solitary, their territories do overlap, so it's possible the one ODFW killed on Friday is not the mountain lion being pursued. To be sure, the cougar was sent to a federal wildlife forensics lab in Ashland, where DNA from the cougar will be compared to DNA from the hiker's wounds. It could take several days for those results to come back.
In the meantime, officials have continued their hunt to "increase the probability that the offending cougar has been caught."
In the days since, ODFW has focused on surveillance and placed additional trail cameras throughout the area. They currently have roughly 30 trail cameras deployed over 35 square miles. If they do spot a cougar, they will hunt and kill it.
[Copyright 2018 Oregon Public Broadcasting]
