Cougar sighting rattles Whitehorse resident

More than a week ago, Christina Lee's husband spotted a cougar near their Whitehorse neighbourhood.

Every night since, strange noises have woken Lee in the night.

"It's a noise we've never heard before, and it's like a shrieking wailing," she said.

"This ear-shattering shrieking woke me up. Sure enough, it sounds like the cougar we've been hearing, just in our yard. I heard my dog, she had ripped the plywood ... pulled the plywood out under the stairs for the [crawlspace] under the house and crawled under the house to hide."

Lee is worried that her kids and pets will be attacked before any action is taken. Butconservation officers say they can't act until they have evidence that the animal is a cougar.

Conservation officer Tynan Thurmersaid officials are taking the reports seriously,but rarely have to deal withcougars in a populated areas.

"I don't think there has been any major issue where a cougar has been sighted over and over and over again, and then had to be removed," he said.

Thurmersaid officers are setting up camerasand asking people to send in photos or audio of what they think is a cougar.

Both Lee and Thurmer want people to report any signs of a cougar to Environment Yukon.