Neighbors on the Los Padres Trail in Ventura County are convinced they spotted a mountain lion cub on security cameras this month.
But this isn’t a little cougar. California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials told The Times on Tuesday that it was a house cat.
The McGee family in Thousand Oaks told KTLA they discovered a mountain lion cub on their property after reviewing security footage from a motion-activated camera. Other neighbors were also worried about their pets, according to the news channel.
But Tim Daley, public information officer for Fish and Wildlife’s South Coast and Interior Desert Region, said the agency investigated the claim and found the animal was actually a large domestic cat.
“One of our biologists saw the story after it came out and made sure the rest of us knew about it this morning,” he said.
The McGees did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time a California resident has mistaken a tame tabby cat for a ferocious feral cat.
In March, the South San Francisco Police Department posted Ring camera footage of an alleged mountain lion on its Facebook page after reports that the animal was prowling residential areas.
The latest update from the department clarifies that the animal is actually a domestic cat. One resident responded to the post with a photo of the cat sleeping on a wicker chair between two smiling children.
