Rare, growling mountain lion caught on Ring camera near Kansas home
WICHITA, Kan. -- A rare sighting of a mountain lion captured on Ring doorbell video had one Kansas resident shocked and a little scared. You see, there have only been a few dozen sightings of mountain lions ever in the state.
Wichita resident Cris Boyle couldn't believe her eyes Monday morning when she got a notification from her ring camera showing the video, KAKE reported.
"I played it, and I had to look at it and think to myself, 'is it in my alley?' Because it was a mountain lion running down the back of the alley," Boyle said.
If you listen closely, it even growled as it passed by.
"It was a terrifying sound to be honest with you. I'd hate to hear that on the other side of the fence," she said.
Matt Peek, a biologist with the Kansas Department of Wildlife Research, said there's no doubt the animal was a mountain lion.
"And it helps there's a domestic cat that jumps out. So you really get a good size comparison of how much bigger the cougar is than the domestic cat," he said.
At first, Peek was skeptical, he said this is only the 36th confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in Kansas, and the first ever in a city -- Wichita.
"In this case, where it's in the city, we also wanted to notify the local police department and make sure that they're aware. So that if somebody does call up and say, you know, there's a mountain lion in the tree in my yard, that they you know, that they take it seriously because it is possible," he said.
Boyle said while it would be easy to let it scare her knowing there could be this massive cat lurking around, she's choosing a different mindset.
"The odds are astronomical that that would have ever happened or whatever happened again; I'm just, rather than afraid, I'm grateful. I'm grateful that we got that experience, because how many people can say 'hey, guess what was in my alley last night,'" Boyle said.
