A Vernon resident has doorcam video of a cougar slinking through her carport.
Samantha Becker emailed the video to Global News on Wednesday morning. The short, black-and-white video shows the cougar entering the carport from the left, slowly walking past the vehicle, then exiting on the right.
The home is located approximately 300 metres from a nearby school, Okanagan Landing Elementary School.
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Okanagan conservation officer Tanner Beck confirmed the doorcam video was that of a small cougar.
“Recently, we’ve gotten reports of a cougar in the Okanagan Landing area,” Beck told Global News. “Just a sighting on a security camera overnight, so nothing uncommon and to be concerned with.
“And another (report) this morning of a cougar that had killed and eaten a coyote. So natural behavior in an area close to houses and around houses, but next to green space where cougars are expected to be at this time of the year.”
The second report of the cougar, where it had killed and eaten the coyote, was along Upper Crestview Drive. Beck said there have been no reports of pets attacked or killed, or no encounters with people.
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Beck said cougars mainly prey on deer. As winter progresses, snow gets deeper, which forces deer to come down into the valley to their winter range, “where we’ve built our communities. And because cougars’ main prey source is deer, they follow them.”
Asked if this is one cougar being spotted in multiple locations, or if there are multiple cougars around the Vernon area, Beck said “there’d be multiple (cougars). There’s a healthy population of cougars.”
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