Puma sightings in downtown Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KGO) -- Some folks in Santa Cruz are a little jittery after there were multiple reports of puma sightings in the downtown area on Friday morning. But the puma was not seen again later in the day.

For Santa Cruz resident, Carolyn Keene, and her daughter Shay, it was just business as usual. She's not alarmed, despite multiple reports of the puma downtown.

"We're still out at the park, I'm not worried about it, I don't feel nervous about it. We live close to the mountains, and sometimes that happens. We're just going about our day as normal," said Keene.

At around 4:45 a.m., Santa Cruz police were first alerted to a possible puma sighting at an apartment complex on Sycamore Street.

About an hour and half later, another call came in from a nearby location at Cedar and Elm.

The most recent sighting happened near the intersection of Lincoln and Center, not too far from a preschool downtown.

There were three possible sightings in a two hour time span.

It was a little too close for comfort, for Liz McComb, who works just a block away.

"You don't know how you're going to react when you see something like that out in the surrounding where you don't expect it to be," said McComb.

Veronica Yovovich with the UC Santa Cruz Puma Project reminds us that while puma sightings are rare, much of California is potential puma habitat.

"If you happen to encounter one, put your arms up. If you have small children, pick them up, put them on your shoulders. You can open your jacket. You want to make yourself look big, and formidable," said Yovovich.

As for why the puma may have been downtown.

"Chances are, it's a young male, that's looking to establish a new territory on its own, and got pretty lost along the way," said Yovovich.

She adds that she thinks the puma has likely wondered back to the mountains on its own.