Former city official spots mountain lion
“Surprise.”
That was what Dennis Constance experienced when he saw what could be a mountain lion Tuesday morning on Kansas University’s West Campus. He saw the animal in the same area where others have reported seeing it, and a photo of it was taken Oct. 1.
“I couldn’t believe that I actually saw this,” Constance said. “I thought, ‘This is really far out.'”
Constance, who served on Lawrence’s city commission 1987-1989, said he saw the mountain lion just to the south of KU’s printing services building. The building is on the southwest corner of the intersection of West 15th Street and Crestline Drive.
Constance is a custodial supervisor senior for KU’s facilities and operations’ housekeeping department. He was filling in for one of his employees when he saw the big cat.
The encounter happened about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday as he was taking some trash to a Dumpster behind the printing services building.
He estimated he was somewhere between 100 yards and 75 yards away from it, but he got a clear view.
“I threw some trash in a dumpster and as I did that, I just happened to look to my right, which is towards the back end of the building, where it goes to the farthest point away from the road,” he said.
“And just as I did, I saw this large animal kind of appear from behind, out of view, from behind the building. And in a couple of bounds, it leaped into the brush line, where the forest starts from the cleared area.
“When I saw it, my first thought was ‘mountain lion’ because it was a big animal, it was tannish in color, it had one of those fat tails like mountain lions have — not bushy, but thick — and long. It just sprung into the bushes.
“I didn’t see it for very long, but it startled me. I made a noise. I think I said ‘Woo’ or something like that, you know. And I stood there and looked for a second. And then I realized it had turned — after it had gone into the brush — it had turned and was looking back at me.
“I didn’t realize that until it turned away and moved its head. And then I realized it had been standing there and looking in my direction.
“It looked like a mountain lion’s face — a cat-like face, shortish muzzle and it has those light and dark tan colorations. It looked enough like it to convince me that that’s what I had seen.”
Constance said he hadn’t heard anyone else in his department talk about seeing the big cat, although he had read recent Journal-World stories about sightings on West Campus.
Mark Jakubauskas, a research assistant professor for the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing program in the Kansas Biological Survey, set up an automatic wildlife camera in August. After a few weeks of taking photos of other wildlife, including deer and a racoon, he captured a photo of what some experts think is a mountain lion.
Constance didn’t think the animal should be removed from the area.
“I think people ought to leave it alone unless we start having problems,” he said. “I think people should be made aware, because a number of folks do like to walk and jog early and late on that part of campus. This animal has not shown any inclination to bother people, but from what I’ve read about mountain lions and things like that, the running motion sometimes triggers their reflex to pursue.”
He said it might be wise to post a sign in the area about the mountain lion.
“I hope people don’t get nervous to the point where they’re wanting to trap it or kill it,” he said.
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Audio interview with Dennis Constance, former city official
6News video: Experts want more evidence of mountain lion
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