SPOKANE, Wash. — A cougar was caught in the backyard of a South Hill neighbor's doorbell camera, sparking the question of how common an occurrence that is in that neighborhood.
While the summer lends itself to more animals being in the yards of people's homes, one backyard got the sight of one never reported in the area before.
Turkeys are the types of wildlife South Hill neighbors are used to.
"We love our turkeys, they probably come up and down our street once a week," Avery Steer said.
Steer lives near Manito Park and is used to safe, non-threatening wildlife.
"The turkeys move really quickly down our street, so they don't really stick around all that long," Steer said.
This week, a sighting of a cougar caught on a South Hill neighbor's ring doorbell camera near East 14th Avenue and South Grand Boulevard brought a sense of shock not just to neighbors, but to those in the field of fish and wildlife.
"Especially in that lower South Hill area, that would be the first actual confirmed cougar sighting [I] have been aware of in the three and a half years that I've been here," Sergeant Tony Leonetti with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Eastern Region said.
Leonetti said no other sightings in the area have been reported.
Leonetti also said weather played a factor in this first occurrence. "With the high heat and things so dry, the cats are moving at night anyways, but there's a lot of deer looking for food resources, so the cat is going to pursue its food source of a deer," Leonetti said.
Neighbors are surprised and concerned to hear about it. "It's definitely unsettling to have that in your neighborhood," Steer said.
While unsettling, Leonetti said it is a reminder of how he and others in the department find dangerous animals that could pose a threat to someone and where they live. "Putting it out there social media wise, letting people be aware of it, that's all good things for the public to know about," Leonetti said. "There was a confirmed sighting in that area."
Steer said that interaction wouldn't be as simple as letting her dogs near pests like the turkeys to get them away from her house.
"I think I would probably call somebody else to get it and keep the animals inside," Steer said.
Leonetti said there is still not a lot of information on where the cougar came from before reaching the South Hill, but said the department relies on people's doorbell cameras and that awareness during the summer months to help prevent any unwanted altercations with wildlife that pose a threat.