Rare cougar sighting on I-90
During the busy weekend preceding the 4th of July, a bold cougar apparently decided to try his or her luck and ran into traffic along I-90. The sighting, made around 11pm during a hard rain, was reported by a motorist who was fortunately able to avoid a collision–and then couldn’t believe what she had seen. She reported that a cougar with a “VERY long tail…was just running across the road, and from nose to tail took up the whole width of the lane.” The motorist was traveling eastbound and the cougar entered the roadway from the south, meaning that it would next have to cross the median and traverse the westbound lanes (or turn around). To our knowledge, the crossing was a success–at least this time. But it’s comforting to know that wildlife crossing structures and fencing will eventually provide a much safer and easier means for cougars and other animals to make their way across the I-90 corridor. The photo below shows a cougar captured by remote camera near Snoqualmie Pass. Maybe it’s even the same animal that decided to chance the highway on that rainy night in late June!
Cougar near Snoqualmie Pass. Credit: WTI
