VICTORIA -- Greater Victoria residents are warning the community of several large animal sightings in the region this week.

On Friday morning, Victoria resident and retired Olympic rower Adam Kreek tweeted a warning about a cougar sighting on Mt. Doug.

Kreek says he spotted the cougar at roughly 4:40 a.m. about 100 metres from where the Norn Trail meets the Whittaker Trail on the mountain.

On Wednesday, the nearby University of Victoria also posted a warning of a potential cougar sighting near campus.

Meanwhile, a Mill Bay man was shocked Friday when he received a notification from his home security camera showed that a prowler was outside his house.

The visitor wasn’t human, but that didn’t calm Jason Taron’s alarm.

The video showed a sizable Vancouver Island black bear saunter past the front of his home late Thursday night.

“This big guy came for a visit last night,” Taron said in a Twitter post. “Heads up to everyone in the Deer Park Mill Springs area of Mill Bay.”

Taron says the black bear has been spotted around the Mill Bay region for roughly one month.

He told CTV News that a neighbour has even had a frightening face-to-face encounter with the bear.  

Bear and cougar sightings have been on the rise on Vancouver Island this year.

In May and June, several up-close cougar sightings were recorded on video or photographed.

Around the same time, police were releasing multiple warnings of bear and cougar sightings in Saanich, Langford, Colwood and View Royal.

In May, four black bear sightings were recorded over a short period of time, three of which occurred in three consecutive days.

After those sightings, the B.C. Conservation Officers Service urged residents to keep their garbage and other animal attractants secure and indoors if possible.

Bears that become habituated to foraging in urban areas may have to be euthanized for public safety, warns the conservation service, something that occurred in Langford in June.

CTV News has reached out to the B.C. Conservation Officers Service for details on this week’s sightings.