Residents in Canada’s Rocky Mountain playground were warned a cougar was on the loose.
But nobody had actually snapped an image of the normally solitary big cat wandering around Banff, Alberta.
Until now.
A cougar was spotted walking through @Banff_Town Jan 9th. @ParksCanada wildlife staff tracked the animal which exited town & continue to monitor the area. This event serves as a reminder to be “wildsmart”. For more info on how to #KeepWildlifeWild visit: https://t.co/fVCJIsjNo6 pic.twitter.com/cM0JE8iE7D
— Banff National Park (@BanffNP) January 10, 2018
It had even been spotted around the local IGA grocery store.
That when an RCMP dashcam was rolling as a cougar walked by during an early morning traffic stop on Jan. 9.
The cop — and the cougar — both do a double-take.
“A nosey neighbour was caught on RCMP VICS camera trying to see what one officer was up to,” RCMP wrote on social media. “There’s never a dull moment policing in Banff National Park!”
“I did a little step back and then I realized it was a cougar,” Constable Julien Cloutier-Jodoin, told the Rocky Mountain Outlook.
He only arrived in Banff last April on his first posting with the RCMP, expecting there would be some wildlife on the job.
“At the time he was looking in my eyes kind of. I flashed my flashlight and thought about if it was going to jump on me,” he told the paper.
He followed the animal for a while and contacted Parks Canada, which tracked the cat until it took off into the woods.
Let the cougar walks into a bar jokes begin.
Photo Alberta RCMP/YouTube
