Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/mountain-lion-house-cat/
Better safe than sorry, but a recent mountain lion sighting in Iowa ended up being a house cat. Described as “young” and “small,” the honest mistake was made in mid-October after spotting the animal roaming through the city’s east side on surveillance footage. If you were wondering if Iowa even has mountain lions, the answer is yes. Mountain lions or cougars are the largest of the three wildcats documented in the state. Bobcats and lynxes are the other two.
Case of Mistaken Identity
NBC affiliate WHO 13 and CBS affiliate KCCI reported that the Des Moines Police Department had alerted community members of a cougar spotted in surveillance video. It wasn’t long before the alert was canceled, and everyone probably had a good chuckle at the mistake. At first glance, you can see why they might have assumed it was a mountain lion. A closer inspection revealed their error.
Des Moines Police Department
At the time, the DMPD confirmed it was investigating the report with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. In the meantime, they cautioned residents not to approach the animal and to dial 911 if it was spotted. Here’s where things went awry. Not long after, police posted to Facebook that “DNR confirmed to DMPD that this is a mountain lion. It does appear to be young/small. Sharing for awareness.”
Oops!
It wasn’t long before the two departments corrected themselves when they acknowledged that the animal, in fact, was an ordinary house cat. Department of Natural Resources wetlands biologist Vince Evelsizer quickly apologized on his department’s behalf. He told KCCI that the confusion stemmed from grainy video footage, which it was. “Initially, we did think it may be a mountain lion, at least enough so that it would be good to notify the public,” Evelsizer acknowledged. The DMPD also updated its earlier Facebook post to reflect the course correction by saying the “debate is over.” They added, “Thank you to Iowa DNR for always moving in the direction of community awareness and safety.”
As you can well imagine, Facebook users wasted no time taking jabs at the innocent mistake. One user even went so far as to share an image of a stuffed teddy bear while joking that a bear had been spotted in a yard. What would we do without social media? If you’re interested, you can watch the video of the actual cat below.
Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
