Jackson residents claim possible cougar sighting in city limits

JACKSON, Tenn. — Has a cougar been spotted in the Hub City?

The answer isn’t so simple and depends on who you ask.

“He wasn’t running. He was just pouncing. He was back and forth, just through the bushes,” Tamul Hudson said.

Hudson works at the Old Medina Market in north Jackson. He said he sometimes will walk home and has seen unusual wildlife.

The gas station is also located in the heart of where one Jackson resident claims she also had a rare sighting.

While she asked not to be identified, we spoke with a woman who posted on social media about spotting a cougar Tuesday night while driving along Campbell Street near I-40.

Wildlife biologists said it’s possible but not likely the cougar was in such an urban area. “They’re very secretive. They’re going to travel river corridors and wooded terrain, not travel in open fields and public,” said Daniel Stanfield with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Stanfield works with the CAT team that confirms cougar presence in the state. He said there probably is a single cougar roaming through West Tennessee, with confirmed sightings in Carroll, Obion and Humphreys counties.

“It’s normal for them to travel hundreds of miles,” he said.

Stanfield said it’s unclear at this time how the cougar traveled into Tennessee and from which direction it came.

The TWRA has not yet confirmed the possible north Jackson sighting.

For more information about cougars, visit the TWRA website.