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Cougar visits city's downtown, peers through windows

By Ben Hooper
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March 22 (UPI) -- A 4-month-old cougar wandered into a British Columbia city's downtown, where it was seen peering through windows before being captured.

The British Columbia Conservation Officer Service said officers were dispatched Wednesday to downtown Kamloops, where locals reported the juvenile mountain lion was wandering loose and looking into buildings through windows.

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The male cougar was tranquilized and removed from the area. Conservation Officer Service Sgt. Kevin Van Damme said officers later decided to euthanize the feline, as it had been orphaned at too young an age to survive on its own.

"Unfortunately, this guy's lost his ability to learn how to be a cougar in the wild and no real chance for it to learn those skills," he told CTV News. "At four months of age, there's no option for the animal to go to a zoo or any wildlife park facility."

Van Damme described the animal as "quite a frightened little guy" and its trip into the city's downtown was "something we haven't seen before."

"Often, we have sightings that are close and near people's backyards on the outskirts of the city, but certainly, we don't see cougars right in downtown Kamloops," he said.

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