A Metro Vancouver Transit Police officer says he was "awestruck" during a close encounter with a pair of cougars outside his Maple Ridge, B.C. home.
Sgt. Clint Hampton tweeted a nine-second video Monday showing the two big cats calmly making their way up the driveway of his rural property.
"Living in rural areas of Metro Vancouver can lead to some interesting encounters. I had these two cruising up my driveway over the weekend," Hampton said in the tweet.
The officer said the motion-activated cameras outside his home starting sending alerts to his phone at around 10:30 p.m. on Friday.
"We get coyotes, those kinds of things once in a while, so I was thinking it was obviously something smaller. I walk out onto my porch with my flashlight, I shine my flashlight and there was two cougars standing there. They both just stared at me," he told CTV News.
"I was kind of awestruck actually. It was really close to my house, so I wasn't fearful for myself, but just neat to see them in the wild like that."
Hampton said he was more concerned for the livestock on the property, which include goats and chickens.
"Neat to see, but of course, having livestock I was a little bit concerned as well," he said, adding that he's seen bears and bobcats near his home before, but not cougars.
"I can tell you if I knew it was two cougars coming up the driveway, I most certainly wouldn't have walked out onto my porch what was out there."
Hampton said he has since spoken with B.C. Conservation Officer Service, which believes the predators seen in the video were just passing through.
