SAN ANTONIO – There's been another sighting of a possible mountain lion on the prowl in the Stone Oak area of San Antonio.
Tuesday's sighting was the second reported by residents since Saturday.
The sighting prompted some schools to take extra precautions after a parent set off alarm bells when she reported seeing a mountain lion on the Stone Oak nature trail next to nearby Canyon Ridge elementary.
"One of our parents actually called the school and said that she herself had seen the mountain lion in a park that backs up to two of our schools," said North East Independent School District spokeswoman Aubrey Chancellor.
The reported sighting prompted Canyon Ridge and Bush administrators to keep kids indoors.
"The schools opted to have indoor recess as well as physical education classes," Chancellor said. "Our risk management department is very involved as well as our NEPD and we are working with Parks and Wildlife as well."
Urban biologist Jessica Alderson with Texas Parks and Wildlife said her office has been fielding a number of calls since the initial sighting over the weekend but they've all been second and third-hand accounts, making it difficult to investigate.
"None of them have been describing any type of unusual behavior that this animal, whether it's a mountain lion or a bobcat or even a stray dog, none of these behaviors are unusual so at this point it's not really a huge risk factor for us," Alderson said. "We do have mountain lions in Texas. Would they be in an urban-type setting? Most likely not."
If in fact there is a big cat on the prowl Alderson said your chances of encountering it are pretty slim because the animal would shy away from humans. If you do run into one, your chances of being attacked are even smaller.
"Mountain lion attacks on humans are very, very rare," Alderson said. "Since 1980, we've only had four in Texas and those all occurred in West Texas."
According to TPWD from 1890-2001, there were only 98 attacks across the U.S. and Canada, 17 of those were fatal. Meanwhile, dogs annually kill 18-20 people and seriously injure another 200,000 people.
News of a possible mountain lion in the area didn't keep families from playing at the park or stop Juleen Brus from using the trail Tuesday evening.
"I'm not worried at all," Brus said. "Being from Alaska you worry about grizzly bears. The cats are afraid of you. I'll be back out here in the morning looking for it."
If you do see a mountain lion in the Stone Oak area or anywhere else in the San Antonio city limits you are asked to contact TPWD's San Antonio Urban Wildlife office at 210-688-6444 to make a report so they can investigate.
NEISD sent a letter to parents in the Stone Oak area and Chancellor said they'll keep them informed of the situation.
"We want to keep our lines of communication open with our parents and we want to let them know what we've been told," Chancellor said. "We do that so they can talk with their children about safety measures and especially because some of our walkers do go through that park."
Letter to parents
Dear Parents & Guardians,
Yesterday, we shared the information about the news report that a family spotted a mountain lion in the Stone Oak Park area. This morning, a Canyon Ridge Elementary parent, reported that she saw a mountain lion in Stone Oak Park, off the trail between Canyon Ridge Elementary and Bush Middle School. This information has been shared with our Risk Management Department and NEPD, who are also in contact with the Stone Oak Park Maintenance Department and Parks & Wildlife Department. We are having our football game on campus today as scheduled. As a precautionary measure, there will be an extra police officer on the grounds. Parents of students who walk home are asked to remind them not to walk home through the Stone Oak Park or trail areas.
Sincerely,
Gary Comalander
Principal