The resident called police last week to report a large cat in the grass alongside Goose Creek, and he was able to get several photos of it, according to Southold Police Capt. Martin Flatley. The images were sent to the DEC's wildlife division in Stony Brook and DEC representatives inspected the area where the cat was seen.
They found no evidence of a cougar or mountain lion, Capt. Flately said. The DEC representatives also measured the height of the eelgrass in which the cat was pictured, both walking and sitting, to arrive at an estimate of the animal's height and length, Capt. Flatley said.
The pictures show a black cat with a patch of white on its chest.
The Suffolk Times sent the image printed above, taken by a resident of Smith Drive South last Wednesday, to John Lutz, director of the Eastern Puma Research Network, a West Virginia-based volunteer organization dedicated to documenting the presence of cougars living in the wild in the eastern United States.
"From position of tail and top of head, I'd say it's a large black house cat," Mr. Lutz said in an e-mail Tuesday night.
The accounts of three separate, earlier sightings in Bayview -- one in July, one in August and a third on Oct. 17 -- gave the color of the animal as tawny or tan.
The cat was about five feet long with a three-foot-long tail, according to one witness, who asked not to be identified. He said he saw the cat in his neighbor's yard from a distance of about 25 feet, at around 9 in the morning. He tried to retrieve his cell phone from his car in the driveway to take a photo of it, he said, but the cat disappeared into the woods before he could take a picture. He reported the incident immediately to the town police. Another area resident, Marisa Romeo, said she saw the animal twice. The first time, in July, she said she thought she was seeing things, and didn't mention it to anyone. When she saw it again, in August, it was lying in the road, grooming itself "like a cat." She was astonished, but understood the animal was no ordinary cat.
The town is taking the reports seriously, Supervisor Scott Russell said this weekend.
But state DEC officials remain unconvinced because they haven't seen any physical evidence of the animal, such as tracks, feces, or felled prey, Mr. Russell said. A spokesman for the DEC could not be reached for comment by presstime.
"We are continuing to reach out to the state for help in confining the animal," Mr. Russell said. "Locally, we are stepping up patrol of the area. We are also asking people to show caution and good judgment until this is concluded. Naturally, we are asking anyone who thinks they have spotted the animal to contact us," he said.
A cougar is an elusive, solitary creature that, in the wild, roams a large territory. The fact that the animal was seen three times in the same relatively small area indicates it's probably someone's pet, Southold Police Chief Carlisle Cochran said.
Pet or not, a cougar is still a wild animal and, if spotted, should not be approached. Experts advise if you encounter the animal, stand tall, raise your arms (to appear as large as you can) and whatever you do, don't run. Cougars love to chase their prey.