A southeast Calgary golf course was briefly evacuated Thursday morning after reports of a cougar seen on the green, which turned out to be a bobcat.
Provincial officials said Calgary police called the Fish and Wildlife office at 10:40 a.m. saying they’d received calls about a cougar at the Willow Park Golf and Country Club.
“We have since heard that CPS officers on scene have spotted a bobcat but no cougar,” Alberta Justice and Solicitor General spokesperson Brendan Cox said in an email to Global News.
Calgary police said after speaking with the people who first reported the sighting, along with other area residents, they were able to confirm the animal was in fact a bobcat.
Cox said sightings of any kind should be reported to the 24-hour Report a Poacher hotline at 1-800-642-3800.
Police told Global News the animal was not acting aggressively, but the golf course was evacuated just after 10:30 a.m. as a precaution.
Head pro golfer Cathy Burton said one of the maintenance crew at the course also thought the large cat was a cougar at first.
“So we took our precautions; we do have a protocol in place to evacuate,” Burton said. “Certainly the fairways, the golf course to keep people safe, and the helicopter for the police was dispatched quite quickly and was actually on the loudspeaker letting people know there was…what we thought was a cougar sighting.”
By 11:30 a.m., golfers were back on the green.
The incident comes just over three weeks after a cougar was spotted on the same golf course, after approaching two police officers and then running through the green into a neighbourhood yard.
At the time, Willow Park Golf and Country Club business manager Margaret Pigeon said wildlife sightings are not unusual at the course, explaining coyotes, deer and bobcats had been spotted in the past.
That cougar was found and shot in the backyard of a home on Willow Ridge Place on July 26, with officials citing “habituated, potentially aggressive behaviour” as factors in the decision.
Watch below from July 26: There was a large police response Wednesday after a cougar was spotted in a southeast Calgary community. Tony Tighe reports.
With files from Global’s Ken MacGillivray and Tony Tighe