Police: Cougar Sighting In Glencoe Unsubstantiated
GLENCOE, Ill. (CBS) -- A possible cougar sighting was reported in north suburban Glencoe this week, but officials believe it may have been a bobcat known to frequent the area.
Glencoe Police Deputy Chief Alan Kebby says an employee of the Chicago Botanic Garden told security there that he had spotted a cougar along the Botanic Gardens' fence line around Lake-Cook and Green Bay Roads yesterday.
Police: Cougar Sighting In Glencoe Unsubstantiated
Kebby says Glencoe police went to the scene and looked around and did not see any evidence of a cougar--either the animal itself or any cougar tracks.
He says a bobcat is known to have been spotted in Glencoe, most recently about a year ago in a woman's back yard.
Deputy Chief Kebby says that, for the past two or three years, there have been bobcat or cougar sightings in Glencoe, Northfield, and Highland Park--communities that border the Skokie Lagoons Forest Preserve.
None of those sightings has been substantiated, Kebby says.
He says that, in the past, people have gone out tracking the possible cougar, have had cameras out, but that no evidence has come in with proof there's been a cougar in the area.
A few weeks ago, a state conservation officer shot and killed a 100 pound cougar near a farmhouse in Whiteside County, in far northwestern Illinois. It was the first time in about a year that a cougar was spotted in Illinois.
