DEPOE BAY — A large mountain lion has been seen prowling the posh gated compound of Little Whale Cove, where pets have gone missing and some residents are more worried about the cougar than the vanished cats.

“It’s true,” one homeowner said of the unwelcome intruder at Little Whale Cove, a parklike seaside community built in 1979. “They don’t want to see the authorities kill another cougar like last time. But a lot of people are uncomfortable and some are afraid to go to their cars at night.”

A couple of years ago, state fish and game experts cornered a 130-lb. male cougar at the end of a dock that had acted aggressively toward a resident, snarling and charging. They shot it with a tranquilizer, causing it to fall into the harbor and drown.

Game-camera photos of a large cougar were recently posted on the Little Whale Cove homeowners’ Facebook page.

“This is a big, mature cat, well fed and totally at home in Little Whale Cove,” said LWC resident Jerome Grant after seeing the photos. “Whatever happens, if it does, will be ironic.”

As for now, City Administrator/Recorder Kim Wollenburg monitors the sightings.

“They’re in the Winchell Street area constantly , and now they’ve crossed the highway to the west side of town,” she reported to the city council recently, which endorsed action by the county sheriff and a PR campaign to safeguard pets.

The pearl-clutching reaction to cougars roaming Depoe Bay reveals the wafer-thin line between cozy suburban life and the unforgiving natural order at the Oregon coast. The tiny city of 1,600 mostly elderly pet-loving residents is surrounded by 100,000 acres of timberlands — a wild habitat dominated by apex predators such as black bears, cougars and raptors. Since a change in hunting laws gave the advantage to mountain lions, their population has exploded from a nearly extinct 200 in the late 1960s to an estimated 6,600 in 2026.

The last thing you want to do is meet a mountain lion in your neighborhood, but Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife has issued the following suggestions, just in case:

• Cougars often will retreat if given the opportunity. Leave the animal a way to escape.
Stay calm and stand your ground.

• Maintain direct eye contact.

• Pick up children, but do so without bending down or turning your back on the cougar.
Back away slowly.

• Do not run. Running triggers a chase response in cougars, which could lead to an attack.
Raise your voice and speak firmly.

• If the cougar seems aggressive, raise your arms to make yourself look larger and clap your hands.

• If in the very unusual event that a cougar attacks you, fight back with rocks, sticks, bear or pepper spray, tools or any items available.