The Echo

Hah!  The Legend Lives!

I was Newark teenager in the 90s when the "cougars" first came to town.  Late in the 90s, I was spending the night in the front bedroom of my parents home not far from the residence of the infamous "cougar lady" - the dear heart and passionate Newarker, since passed on, who saw the cougar first.  There was a rental home just around the curve from my parents, the previous renters had been of the Gore line, and had recently been replaced by a rowdy crowd of UD students, then subject to the hazy glee of underage drinking and college parties.  At 3 am, I was staring woefully out the window, wishing the party away, when there in our front yard was the "cougar,"  or a giant pregnant raccoon.  I'm pretty sure it was a raccoon.  I donned acceptable wear and headed for the front yard.  It was gone.  So, I walked up the street to the former Gore residence, knocked on the door, and asked a student to turn the music down.  She did. 

Yes, it was certainly a raccoon.  Even after marrying my own dear heart, whose mother swears she saw the cougar in a tree in her North Wilmington home, I am still a non-believer!


Cougar sighting craze returning?


Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 8:44 PM CST

The sighting of a cougar early Wednesday morning was only the latest chapter of the story of the elusive cat in Delaware that dates back to the 1990s.

Sightings of the cats, also known as mountain lions or pumas, were reported in the 1990s and continued into 2002.

One story in the New York Times claimed the cat had escaped from an owner in Pennsylvania and had fled into Delaware. The Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife declared that two or perhaps more cougars were roaming New Castle and perhaps Kent County, according to the website, cougar.net. They were believed to be feeding on deer and Canada geese. Sightings were also reported by State Park rangers at White Clay Creek and Lums Pond state parks in New Castle County. Sightings were also reported in the city of Newark.

Evidence included video, footprint and droppings. There have been no reports of attacks on pets or livestock.

Sightings have also been reported throughout the Delmarva Peninsula all the way to the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

The reports became so numerous that New Castle County Police assigned an officer in the mid 1990s to track the cat and capture it with a tranquilizer gun. The effort, which included bringing cougar hounds from Colorado, failed.

State wildlife officials have not ruled out the possibility that all animals that have been sighted either were freed or escaped from private owners.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports cougars need a lot of room, while noting that no evidence of a breeding population on the East Coast has been found. Males may occupy a range of more than 25 square miles and females between 5 and 20 square miles.

In the latest report, County Police said a 45 year-old man told them he was out walking his dog when it began acting "strange" and pulled toward a nearby wooded area, where he spied a cougar sitting underneath some trees.

The man said he called 911 and watched the cat for about eight minutes. The cougar, which he described as twice the size of his Boxer, then made a high-pitched growl and walked off into the woods, the man said.

Police searched the area, but found no signs of the animal.