Large, black feline spotted in Alfred-Plantagenet

A large black cat, believed to be a black cougar, was spotted in the Lac George area in Alfred-Plantagenet on Wednesday, June 30 shortly after lunch time.
A local man called police to report seeing a large black "panther-like" cat on Lac George Road.
An investigation revealed that the cat would most likely be a black cougar. 
Local area residents would have informed police that such a cat would have been seen in the area over the last 3 years.
Police patrolled the area to no avail. The Ministry of Natural Resources was contacted and informed of the situation. The agency dispatched an officer to further investigate the matter.
Police are advising residents in the area to be cautious and to contact the OPP at 1-888-310-1122 if the animal is observed.
The MNR has long-maintained that it's highly unlikely that cougars exist in these parts of Ontario, despite several alleged sightings of the endangered cats.
Recently, the MNR conceded that the large cats do roam the area, but there are still numerous questions that remain unanswered.
"We just don't know where they're from," MNR spokeswoman Jolanta Kowalski told The Review in an e-mail Monday afternoon.
The cougars could be an indigenous population that has slowly grown in numbers since almost being wiped out in the late 1800s, or they could be escapees from zoos or transients from the northern United States or Manitoba, she noted.
Since 2002, about 2,000 cougar sightings have been reported to the MNR, but few traces have been collected.
Kowalski said the MNR has never denied that cougars, also known as pumas or mountain lions, live in Ontario.
In fact, the MNR website lists the cougar as an endangered species in Ontario, similar to the barn owl and American badger.
The MNR has been conducting a study on the seldom-seen carnivores since 2006. More than 30 pieces of evidence have been collected, such as scat samples, DNA and pictures of cougar tracks, to verify the large cat's existence in the Ontario wild.
So far, no one has come forward with a definite picture of a cougar.
Kowalski said the four-year study of cougars in Ontario is not complete, as erroneously reported by other media.
"It is an ongoing research project," she said.
The agency is continuing to monitor wildlife cameras, which have been set up in northern Ontario where cougars have been spotted.