By RICK KELLEY Staff Writer




LOS FRESNOS — A bright yellow cautionary tale sits beside a birding trail that winds through the mesquite trees at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.

The sign, in English and Spanish, reads “Warning Cougar Area.”

Whether that is accurate on any given day is problematic, because refuge officials and others think mountain lions are inside Laguna Atascosa periodically but not necessarily on a permanent basis.

“I think it kind of raises alarm when it doesn’t need to be raised,” said Boyd Blihovde, the refuge manager, who says he inherited the warning signs when he arrived several years ago and has considered removing them. “But I feel like if we take them down, that’s when something will happen.”

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/article_353e8148-b27d-11e6-9e87-63d8a0869c46.html

Hunters have been documenting them through their observations for as long as the refuge has been hunted (early '70s). NWR staff has always given it the "yeah, yeah...".