Scarborough police say they have notified the Maine Warden Service about the sighting of what a resident says could be a mountain lion or a bobcat.

The woman, who lives in the Higgins Beach neighborhood, took a photograph of the animal wandering through her backyard on Sept. 26. She posted the photograph on her Facebook page and several friends said they thought the animal was a mountain lion.

Scarborough police received a copy of the photograph and provided an image to the Portland Press Herald on Thursday night. Since the sighting, the woman, who does not want to be identified, said she has not let her child go outside their house.

There is an ongoing debate about whether mountains lions, also known as cougars, live in Maine. According to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website, bobcats are reclusive animals that are rarely observed in the wild.