Cougar Caught Near Minnesota School

A cougar captured near a Minnesota elementary school in an incident that was

Tammy Quist, the executive director of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Cedar, Minn., has agreed to take custody of the cougar until a permanent home in a sanctuary is found for the cat, the agency said.

Willmar, Minn., veterinarian Gregg Laurence said the cougar was mostly calm and doing well Wednesday, a day after it was captured near Kennedy
Elementary School after running through a residential neighborhood.

The cat wasn't wearing a collar or tags and was somewhat thin, Laurence said.

Officers received a call around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday and found the cougar in a tree. It came down and ran around the neighborhood for about two hours.

School officials made sure all the children were inside and locked the doors. The animal wound up under a large camper trailer, and was shot with four tranquilizer darts. The cougar began to walk around again, but was wrestled to the ground by exotic animal specialist Bob Bilger, who lives in the area.

"One of the things you learn when working with wild cats," Bilger told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen Wednesday, "is that you don't get the luxury of being scared. So you have to train yourself that as the cat comes at you or looks like it's going to come at you, you have to respond by going at it. Believe it or not, if you are eye to eye with a cat and approach it, it will turn and go the other way, which is I'm sure what everybody saw me doing around that last house where we had the cat cornered."

The cougar was taken to a local veterinary clinic.

When Chen observed that there seem to be a growing number of reports of wild animals in residential areas, Bilger pointed out that, if you find yourself confronted by a wild animal such as a cougar, "The thing you should never do is turn and run. As long as you maintain your eye contact with the animal, and especially with a wild animal, it does not like you viewing it. So you've got about a 30-second window, and then the cat is going to leave. They don't like being observed."

Officials believe the Minnesota cougar may have been the pet of someone in the Willmar area, but no one has come forward to claim it.

"This is not a releasable animal," said John Baillie with the Wildcat Sanctuary. "This is not a wild animal that strayed there. This is someone's pet."

Baillie said he came to that conclusion because of the cougar willingly entered human habitat and stayed close enough to be shot with the tranquilizer gun.

Nearly a month ago, Quist's office received a call from a man who said he lived in the Willmar area and was wondering what to do with an unregistered, female cougar.

"They were thinking of surrendering the cat and didn't know if they could meet the requirements for registration," Quist said.

It's illegal under Minnesota law to own a wild animal without a permit.

"He never called us back," Quist said. "It could have been the same cat, or it might not have been." She said they will be checking their call records to see if they can track the caller.