State confirms sighting of mountain lion in Frisco backyard

KTVT

By Julia Falcon, Andrea Lucia

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    Texas (KTVT) — For the first time in years, the State of Texas confirmed the sighting of a mountain lion in North Texas.

Video was taken last week in a Frisco backyard that showed a mountain lion on the prowl.

But if you think you’ve seen a mountain lion in your own backyard in North Texas, you’re probably wrong.

The vast majority of pictures and videos of potential sightings from the area sent to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department end up being bobcats, foxes and even domestic cats.

But last week, the department said it got a video from Brent Blackwell, a Frisco resident, showing what is clearly, according to its urban wildlife experts, an actual mountain lion.

They say the giveaway is its size and length of the tail, which unlike bobcats, is long enough to nearly touch the ground.

Blackwell told CBS News Texas that his backyard camera captured the image around 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, giving him quite the surprise.

“When I woke up, I had a notification so I checked it and I watched it again just like that, a bobcat,” he said. “And so then I like zoomed in and you could see the really long tail. And that’s when I was like, that’s no bobcat.”

Mountain lions do pop up in West Texas, but this is only the second confirmed sighting of one in Collin County within the last few decades.

Even in parts of the country where mountain lions are common, attacks are rare. So, Texas Parks and Wildlife says there’s no need for concern. They also say this area doesn’t make a good habitat for the animal, so it’s likely already moved on.

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