Oversized alley cat creates cougar scare near Metrotown

Burnaby couple JasonMcIntyre and Amrita Sandhu got a rare treat Saturday morning when they spotted something unusual in their back alley, just a short walk from Metrotown.

"Wecould hear the crows going crazy outside and my wife went, opened the door and said, 'Hey look, there's acoyote out there walking down the alley,'" McIntyre said.

The couple watched from the balcony of their Newton Street apartmentas the animal definitely not a coyote made its way down the alley.

Fearing it was a cougar walking through the streets of Burnaby, Jason called the RCMP.

"Burnabydetachment sent an officer out. He told me it was a coyote. I said let's look at the footage that I took of it. He instantly said, "Okay that's a big cat," and he called animal control," McIntyre said.

B.C. conservation officer JackTrudgianarrived at the scene a few hours later, reviewed the footage, and determined the big cat wasn't a cougar.

"Definitely, this is a coastal bobcat," he said.

"See the walk, the stride?We can rule out it's a cougar because of the tail,the colour and the size," he said.

Trudgiansaid only a handful are seen in B.C.every year, and hardly any are seen in Metro Vancouver.

"There's not very many in the Lower Mainland, but they do come off the mountains. Sometimes they'll come out fromPort Moody andCoquitlam area they'll follow the railway tracks around the north side of BurnabyMountain."

Unlike cougars, bobcatshave no history of attacking humans, but Trudgian says totreat them like any wildlife.

"You should never runfrom a wild animal because it could trigger a reaction. The best thing is to let it know you are there. Speak softly to it, don't scream [and] back away slowly," he said.

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