There is a lot of wildlife that you would not think about living in the urban and suburban areas around the Baltimore/DC area. Friends in Baltimore had a fox who would sit on their porch and look in the screen door at their cat, and I saw a dead coyote in the road in Jessup, Maryland. (I got out and checked and no, it was not a dog.) In my back yard, I saw a peregrine falcon up in a tree, and while driving on a highway near the house, my husband and I saw a bald eagle swooping over the road, and catching a rabbit. (That was magnificent!) We also saw the eagle or his mate flying low over the highway several other times.

There was also the aforementioned bear (which was mistaken for a Sasquatch in early reports), and I have heard of other sightings of cougars in more outlying areas just a handful of miles outside of the suburbs, generally north of Baltimore around I95.

Wildlife adapts, and that is how it is. If we take their habitat, then we should not be surprised if they come into our habitat.

I, like others, just hope that no one gets hurt as officials try and trap and move the cougar.

In Carbondale we had a deer come all the way up to the center of town using the railroad tracks as a highway, so if there are any predators on deer, they will eventually follow. Cougars were native to the area up to the early 20th century, and there are rumors and partial sightings. As well as the definitive sighting–a dead body–of a bobcat twenty-five miles away.

I hope no one gets hurt, two-legged or four-legged in this situation.

Hopefully.