Neighbors of the Los Padres path in Ventura County had been satisfied they’d noticed a child mountain lion on their safety cameras this month.
But it surely was not a small cougar. It was a giant home cat, California Division of Fish and Wildlife officers advised The Occasions on Tuesday.
The McGee household of Thousand Oaks advised KTLA they’d noticed a cougar cub on their property after reviewing safety footage from motion-activated cameras. Different neighbors had been fearful for his or her pets, the information channel reported.
However Tim Daly, public info officer for Fish and Wildlife’s South Coast and Inland Desert areas, mentioned the company investigated the declare and located that the animal in query was in actual fact a big home cat.
“One among our biologists noticed the story after it appeared and made positive this morning the remainder of us had been conscious,” he mentioned.
The McGees didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
It’s not the primary time California residents have mistaken a tame tabby for a ferocious wildcat.
In March, the South San Francisco Police Division posted Ring digicam footage of a purported mountain lion to its Fb web page, following experiences that the animal was prowling a residential neighborhood.
An replace from the division clarified that the animal was in actual fact a home cat. One resident replied to the publish with an image of the pussycat asleep on a wicker chair between two smiling youngsters.