Reports of a cougar on the campus today prompted University Police to search the woods and worked local news media into a frenzy, but experts say the sightings may not have actually been of that specific member of the feline family.

“We still have no confirmation” of the cougar, said Captain John Brandt, a University Police spokesman.

University Police received a report at about 6 a.m. from a maintenance worker who claimed he had seen a cougar near University Boulevard. Police later received two second-hand reports of cougar sightings yesterday, Brandt said. Those sightings were near the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and Cole Field House. Police sent out a campus email alert shortly after 1 p.m., and additional sighting was reported near the Center for Young Children.

But despite campus efforts to find the animal, there is reason to doubt the report. Wiley Hall, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources, said there had been no confirmed sightings of cougars in the state of Maryland in recent years, despite reports of cougar sightings in every county. Cougars are native only to Florida and states west of the Mississippi River.

Bobcats, however, are native to Maryland, and it’s possible the animal may be a bobcat, Brandt said.

Also, Brandt said professors had informed him that a feline matching the description in the e-mail alert was unlikely to be a cougar. Those who saw the animal say it was four feet long and about 50 pounds, but cougars of that length would probably weigh less, the professors told Brandt.

Hall said Natural Resources and the University Police were looking for confirmation of the animal’s presence by searching for cougar hair, droppings or tracks.

Brandt said as many as 18 police officers were searching the woods near the most recent sighting. They kept a perimeter around the area they searched but came up with nothing.

Local news media covered the event heavily. News helicopters floated above the woods where officers were searching, hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal from the air. During one phone interview with a radio station, Brandt said he received five calls from other media outlets seeking interviews.

Brandt said officers will continue to look for the animal, particularly because cougars tend to come out late at night and early in the morning.

Even if the cougar was here, Brandt said, it might never be seen again.

“They tend to be ghosts,” he said. “They’re really hard to find.”