Conservation officers in Kamloops, B.C. have euthanized an orphaned male cougar after it was spotted in a residential part of the city's downtown core.
The four-month-old animal was first seen outside a condo building in the area of Nicola Street and 3 Avenue Wednesday morning.
Officers blocked off the area to make sure no one had a run in with the wild cat while conservation officers removed the cougar from the area.
According to Sgt. Kevin Van Damme of the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, the cougar could neither be rehabilitated to be released back into the wild nor kept in captivity.
"Unfortunately, this guy's lost his ability to learn how to be a cougar in the wild and no real chance for it to learn those skills," he said. "At four months of age, there's no option for the animal to go to a zoo or any wildlife park facility."
Van Damme said the cougar had likely been orphaned for several days and was "quite a frightened little guy" that wouldn't survive without its mother, calling the incident "something we haven't seen before.
"Often, we have sightings that are close and near people's backyards on the outskirts of the city, but certainly, we don't see cougars right in downtown Kamloops," he said.
Van Damme said conservation officers had received reports of a cougar in another part of the city a few days before the incident, but couldn't confirm that it was the same animal.
