The Assiniboine Park zoo re-opened Tuesday. It had closed Monday after reports of a wild animal on the loose in the Assiniboine Forest.
Sunday night police began getting calls of cougar sightings from people in the area. CTV News sent a camera person to the scene. She got shots of a suspicious animal too large to be a house cat.
Then on Monday morning zoo staff found tracks near their deer enclosures. The discovery was serious enough that management decided to evacuate zoo visitors early Monday afternoon. Staff then began searching the grounds for an animal on the loose.
"We've closed, as of noon," Dr. Gordon Glover, the zoo's co-ordinator, told CTV News. "We're going to sweep the zoo with our own employees to make sure everything is safe."
Staff searched for more than two hours but found nothing. All of their cougars were accounted for. A member of the zoo staff examined the CTV footage of Sunday night's mystery animal. He concluded the animal was likely a raccoon: the distinguishing feature was its pointy nose.
But what about those tracks?
Officials at the zoo decided that a lynx, a cat much smaller than a cougar, was the likely culprit for the tracks at the fence. They confirm that one of their employees saw a lynx in the Assiniboine Forest while he was walking his dog on Sunday.
The province's Department of Conservation says Manitoba is part of the lynx's natural habitat. Conservation officials say they get several sightings each year.
They add that it's not unheard of for cougars to be spotted in this area, but it's rare.
The province says there are still plenty of wild animals in the Assiniboine Forest, and that they can be dangerous if they feel threatened. If you see one, they say the best advice is to slowly back away and go somewhere safe.
