Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) in Interior Alaska

John Fredson School writes,

In the summer of 2008 my family and I went to Fort Yukon on a boat trip. And about 10 miles down river from Venetie Landing we saw a mountain lion (Puma concolor) get a drink of water at a cut bank. The tail was almost as long as its body. It was tan and the tail was half black - at the end. Mountain Lions are usually not in Alaska. Especially in the Interior. We had never heard of anyone seeing one before. When it saw us, it just sat there and stared at us. It was not afraid or anything. It just drank the water and went back up the cut bank. Never to be seen again - yet. Later we talked to some people in Fort Yukon, and they also have reports of Mountain Lions occasionally in the past. Noah Whitwell, High School Junior at John Fredson School in Venetie, Alaska. With Keely O'Connell, Teacher

LEO says:

This is the first sighting of a Mountain Lion in Alaska reported to LEO Network. The Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) has been notified of the posted observation.

Resources:

Mountain lions sighting are reported every year in Alaska, but the cats are so rare in the state that accounts often take on the mythical quality of Bigfoot sightings.Reports have come from as far north and west as the Kenai Peninsula and the Palmer area, but the most credible accounts come from Southeast Alaska, which is adjacent to known populations in neighboring British Columbia. Mountain Lions in Alaska, by Riley Woodford, Alaska Fish & Wildlife News, ADF&G. February 2004.

Every few years Fish and Game gets a report of a cougar sighting in Alaska. In October 2017 a woman reported seeing what she thought was a cougar in Ketchikan. Although the cats are fairly rare in northern British Columbia, biologists estimate there are about 3,500 mountain lions in Southern B.C. - and Vancouver Island has one of the highest densities of mountain lions in the world. Cougars in Alaska by Riley Woodford, Alaska Fish & Wildlife News, ADF&G. November 2017.