MINNEAPOLIS — The cougar that was caught on home surveillance video in Minneapolis and later fatally hit on Interstate 394 earlier this month will become part of an educational display.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB), the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and community members plan to taxidermy the remains of the cougar, which is also called a mountain lion, panther, or puma.
"Many of us were captivated by the prospect of such a majestic animal living among us and were saddened to hear how it met its end," said MPRB Superintendent Al Bangoura in their news release. "Now, there is an opportunity to give the story a happier ending. I'm appreciative of the DNR and community members coming together to help educate future generations on the wonderful variety of wildlife that can be found in our city."
The DNR has the remains of the big cat and is working with the MPRB to send it to a taxidermist. No further details about the display were released.
The cougar had a tag on its ear and had traveled a great distance way "in search of mates, territory, and food."
DNR officials were able to determine the cougar had traveled 650 miles from the Oglala National Grasslands in northwest Nebraska to Minneapolis.
In the early hours of Monday, Dec. 4, security cameras caught the cougar sneaking across a driveway in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis.
The DNR and Minneapolis Animal Care and Control issued a warning about the cougar, advising people in the area to "pay increased attention when outside."
Then in the early hours of Wednesday, Dec. 6, a cougar was struck and killed on I-394 near the junction of the Theodore Wirth Parkway in Minneapolis. A 53-year-old man hit the cougar with an SUV, swerved, and then careened into a concrete barrier. His injuries were not life-threatening.
A DNR expert told KARE 11 that the cougar that was killed was almost certainly the same one spotted earlier because the animals are exceedingly rare in that area. Until that first week in December, a cougar hadn't been seen in Hennepin County in nearly 20 years.
