A cougar was recently spotted lurking near Yellowknife, three weeks after wildlife officials confirmed the territory's first cougar sighting not far from the city.

Two Yellowknife residents reported seeing a big cat crossing the Ingraham Trail just south of the Cassidy Point turnoff on Monday. However, the sighting could not be confirmed because no tracks were found.

On May 9, a motorist reported seeing a cougar about 40 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife on Highway 3. It was later confirmed to be a cougar.

Although in recent years cougar sightings have on occasion been reported in the Northwest Territories, the May 9 sighting was the first one that wildlife officials were able to confirm.

Senior wildlife officer Raymond Bourget could not speculate if it was the same cougar in both sightings, as the animals are known to cover large distances. He told CBC News it's difficult to say why cougars have decided to move into the forests in the North Slave region.

"It could simply be that one developed a wanderlust and started to move," Bourget said Wednesday.

"Wildlife does expand its range as numbers increase or as prey is reduced. Young ones … quite often, if they don't have territory, they will be the ones that will start to expand as well. So it could be any number of reasons."

Bourget advised people to react to a cougar the same way they would react to a bear, meaning pets should be kept on a leash and people should make noise when they're hiking.