A cougar surprised residents on Tuesday in Tamazulápam del Espíritu Santo, a Mixe community in the Oaxaca Sierra.

The 2.5 meter cat was first sighted in the undergrowth of an avocado tree, and later captured by local authorities who released it in an area of woodland.

Police and residents struggled with the cougar for a few minutes to restrain it, the newspaper El Universal reported. A video posted on social media showed the bound animal being pulled from a property on its back.  

The feisty feline was loaded, with some difficulty, onto a police pickup truck, where it attempted to free itself by leaping to escape the vehicle, despite being shackled.

Community spokesperson Romeo Sánchez said it was the first time a cougar related incident had been reported in the area, despite their natural habitat only being one kilometer away.

#ÚltimoMinuto
¿Qué le parece? Un puma ingresó a un domicilio en #Tamazulápam del Espíritu Santo, comunidad de la zona Mixe de #Oaxaca.
Pobladores y policías municipales lograron capturarlo y regresarlo a su hábitat.
El video lo comparte @carreraOax. pic.twitter.com/n4GZsoF8YW

— Zona Roja Oaxaca (@Zona_Roja_Oax) November 17, 2021

Diego Guzmán related the events on social media. “This morning a cougar arrived near my parents’ house in Tama [Tamazulápam], probably looking for food. It took refuge by an avocado tree owned by my neighbors; after a few hours community members and the authorities managed to capture and later release it,” he said.  

Oaxaca is the natural habitat of five species of felines: the cougar, the jaguar, the ocelot, the lynx, and the jaguarundi.

With reports from El Universal and Milenio