Seen A Cougar Or Coyote? Help Local Researchers Track Carnivores

BELLEVUE, WA — You might not see them, but they're here.

Carnivores live across the Seattle-Bellevue area — from black bears and cougars to more common coyotes and raccoons — and local researchers are interested in finding out more about their behavior in the urban environment. So Seattle University researchers and the Woodland Park Zoo have created a way for Puget Sound residents to report sightings to the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project.

"Through the mobile-friendly Carnivore Spotter tool, the citizens of the greater Seattle region can help us expand our knowledge of urban carnivores and promote coexistence," said Woodland Park Zoo’s Living Northwest Program director Robert Long in a statement.

If you see a carnivore — or even if you just hear what you think might be a coyote howling — you can head to the carnivore spotter website to enter what you witnessed. The information will help researchers figure out why animals might be in a certain place, and how they travel.

Although it's hard to keep tabs on how many carnivore-human encounters there are in the Seattle area, we have plenty of anecdotes about them happening. Cougars have been seen on Mercer Island and in Kirkland recently. In May, a horseback rider from Woodinville had a scary encounter with a black bear. And who could forget the Renton black bear caught napping near an elementary school.

But the ultimate local urban carnivore sighting might be the South Seattle coyote who got his head stuck in an empty mayonnaise jar back in 2011.