A mountain lion that has been seen and photographed on Kansas University’s west campus may have a companion — possibly a mountain lion cub.

So says a Kansas University senior who says he saw a larger mountain lion and a smaller one running together last week from a wooded area behind the Dole Institute of Politics west across Crestline Drive into a wooded area behind the KU Printing Services building.

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“They ran 30 feet in front of the car. … They ran directly off into the woods,” said Josh Ramsey, a KU senior from Oklahoma City.

Ramsey said he saw the two animals about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 30 as he was driving south on Crestline, just south of the 15th Street intersection.

Ramsey, who works at KU’s Biological Survey, said he immediately decided to report the sighting to Mark Jakubauskas, a research assistant professor who has been working to verify various reports of mountain lion sightings on KU’s west campus.

Jakubauskas said he was on vacation last week and didn’t get the news until this morning.

“Assuming that his report is correct, it potentially suggests that this is more than just an isolated animal, that it might be actually reproducing,” Jakubauskas said.

After there were reports of a mountain lion being sighted just west of the Dole Institute in August, Jakubauskas set up a motion detector camera in an area behind the radio tower on west campus.

His camera captured a night flash photo of an animal resembling a mountain lion, which was reproduced widely around the state. However, expert opinion was mixed whether it was a mountain lion.

Last month, Jakubauskas got a report back from a lab that did DNA analysis on some droppings he found near campus that were confirmed to have come from a mountain lion.

Several others have reported seeing a single mountain lion crossing Crestline toward the printing center. And Dennis Constance, a former Lawrence city commissioner, said he saw a mountain lion behind the printing services building last fall.

Jakubauskas said he took his camera down the first part of December for cleaning and maintenance.

Ramsey, who described both animals as beige in color, with long tails, said he watched them for about 30 seconds as they crossed in front of his car and ran into a wooded area.

He said he had been a bit skeptical of all of the sightings being reported in the west campus area.

“Two, to me, is more plausible than just one,” he said. “But if there’s one or two or three or four, that’s a lot more realistic, I guess.”