A recent wave of cougar sightings and a report of an attacked dog in the Hockley Valley area have some residents wondering what might be in their backyard.

“I saw this sleek-looking animal - it was a lot larger than a house cat - it just moved off through the grass,” said Barry Murphy, a resident who lives near the 2nd Concession Road and County Road 1.

Murphy had his sighting about six months ago, but he said many of his neighbours have also recently sighted something that they can’t explain. Most describe it as looking like a cougar, but very few people have got a really close look at the animal, he said.

A few weeks ago, a man living near the sightings let his two Bichon Frise dogs out. They ran into the forest barking, as they often do. This time they returned with what the man described as a cougar in chase. The cat caught one of the dogs, before letting it go when spotting the people. The animal received what appear to be bite and claw marks.

Freda White is a former Humane Society abuse investigator, and many neighbours come to her when they have questions about animals.

When she heard about the dog attack, she wasn’t surprised given the sightings in the area. She hasn’t seen a cougar herself, but she has found large paw prints she believes were left behind by the animal. The paw prints were about three by five inches in size. She sent a photo to the Ministry of Natural Resources, but their investigator said they are likely from a large animal in the dog family. She isn’t convinced though.

Ontario Puma Foundation president Stuart Kenn said cougars (also known as pumas), are native to the province, although conclusive evidence is rare to come by. Kenn, a Beeton resident, has studied pumas for the past 30 years. His foundation is comprised of biologists, farmers and trappers, all of whom have some stake in the Ontario cougar population, and it works with the MNR to research cougar sightings in the province.

He said that reports of cougar sightings in the Hockley area are nothing new.

“Personally, I think there is a female that has been living in that area for years.”

He has been receiving sightings from people for about the past eight years, although he has yet to find conclusive evidence to prove his hypothesis.

Part of the problem is the animals’ reclusive nature. He has set up a fur trap, as well as a remote camera to try to uncover more than just a sighting, but hasn’t been able to examine his results yet.

Based on the descriptions from the dog owner, Kenn believes it was a large cat that perpetrated the attack, but doesn’t know if it was a cougar. The person didn’t get a good look at the animal’s tail, which means it also could have been a bobcat, Kenn said.

He said that even if there was a cougar in the area, it poses little threat to people.

“Pumas are elusive, and they’re shy. They are not interested in humans at all,” he said.

Even with the Adjala Central Public School being nearby, he said there is no threat to the children either.

“(The school) is out in the middle of an open field. The last thing in the world (cougars) are going to be interested in is coming towards a bunch of yelling, screaming kids.”

Still, he advised people to keep an eye on pets and not to let them run off into the woods. In the most recent attack, the animal was likely defending itself when it was chased by the two small dogs.

He said he believes this cougar could have cubs, and that its behaviour is consistent with that theory.

“If she does have young up there, she can’t afford to be injured. If she wanted to kill the dog, the dog would have been dead. If she wanted to eat the dog, it would have been eaten,” he said.

Officially, the MNR says there are no wild cougars in Ontario. Any sighting that are reported are likely misidentifications, or a cougar that has escaped from captivity, said Jolanta Kowalski, a communications spokesperson for the ministry.

She said the ministry has no indication that there is currently a wild cougar population in the province, although it is in the animals’ historic range.

Kowalski said that MNR offices had received calls from some local farmers alleging that the ministry had released the cougar to help control the surging wild turkey population. She said the allegation was a myth, and not true.