Texas wildlife officials are warning residents after a mountain lion was captured on video strolling through the backyard of a Denton County home last week.
Rachel Richter, an urban wildlife biologist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said a resident who lives in western Frisco near Lewisville Lake reported the sighting to the agency on Monday.
The video footage of the mountain lion is from Friday, she said, adding that state wildlife officials visited the location to confirm the sighting.
This is the first confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in Denton County, she said. The state started formally tracking mountain lion sightings in the early 1990s.
“We have a process that we go through in order to confirm a sighting to make sure that it is legitimate, and the protocol depends on what is provided to us,” Richter said. “In this case, it was relatively easy because there was a video that clearly shows a mountain lion.”
Richter said mountain lion sightings are “extremely unusual” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
She thinks the large feline in the video is “just passing through” and added mountain lions have home ranges exceeding 100 square miles. “It’s likely that this animal is no longer in that area,” she said.
In 2020, a mountain lion was spotted in Rowlett. About three weeks later, Texas wildlife officials confirmed that trail cameras in Collin County, near Princeton, had taken photos of a mountain lion.
Because of the rarity of mountain lion sightings in the area, wildlife officials said it is likely that the two sightings in 2020 were of the same animal.
Mountain lions are nocturnal, and attacks are rare, Richter said. The department is monitoring the situation and is asking people to report any sightings.
“We may not get another video; it may not be seen again,” she said. “But if it is, we want to be able to monitor its movements.”
Frisco police shared a news release on social media warning residents about the mountain lion.
If people encounter a mountain lion, they should pick up any children and small animals off the ground and not approach the animal, according to the release.
They should try to remain calm, not turn their backs to the mountain lion and back away slowly if possible.
If a mountain lion is aggressive, people should not run. They should try to enlarge their body profile and throw objects, including stones and sticks, to scare the animal away. In the case of an attack, people should fight back.
“There are plenty of places where mountain lions are fairly common, or at least if not fairly common, more common than they are here,” Richter said. “It is extremely rare to have an incident with a mountain lion.”