Apparent Cougar Spotted At Parking Garage At OHSU

California Dept. of Fish and Game

(File photo)

Officials at Oregon Health and Science University say a patient and a staff member saw a cougar walking out of a parking garage at about 2 a.m. Thursday.

Public safety officer, Greg Moawad, says there’s no video, but the two people saw the cat from a patient’s window.

Moawad said, “From a layman’s perspective, the first thing that went through our mind was is the food, trash, that sort of thing, that may have attracted the cat. Our first instinct was the rummage through the garbage cans and make sure that those things were empty. As we began to figure out that in fact they are hunter preyers more than they are foragers, or course then we began looking outside our own institution walls.”

Moawad says the hospital has alerted patients and visitors with posters around campus and leaflets in the neighborhood.

Cougars have a large range, on the order of square miles, and it’s not believed the cat is living in or near the garage.

This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.