The mountain lion that led two Duluth schools to briefly lock their doors Wednesday likely wandered to northern Minnesota from Nebraska, a likely journey of at least 500 miles.

The Minnesota DNR has been tracking the cougar for the past several months. Trail cameras captured images of it near Fergus Falls in early September. Then it traveled east near Park Rapids, Brainerd, Grand Rapids and eventually to the North Shore and Duluth. • Big cat on the prowlMountain lion spotted in Duluth

John Erb, a wildlife researcher with the DNR, said people should be cautious around mountain lions. But it's extremely rare for them to attack people.

“When you look at all the mountain lions and all the potential encounters, very, very few result in any sort of attack on a human.”

Erb says the cat is l

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