Each of our native wild creatures is in itself a
precious heritage that we have no right to destroy
or put beyond the reach of our children.
—Ernest Thompson Seton, Lives of the Hunted
As Erin Laberge was riding her bike through the East Wellington area of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, she noticed a golden retriever in the ditch. A car was coming the other way so she pedalled toward the dog to prevent it from running onto the road. But as she passed, she realized it wasn’t a dog, it was a cougar. The eighteen-year-old skidded to a stop, then her flight instinct kicked in. Leaning over the handlebars she pumped her legs as hard as she could, convinced she could outrun the cat.
But the cougar followed, coming within seven metres (twenty-two feet). “You know how you have a bad dream and you’re running away from something and your legs are shaking? It was like that,” she told Chris Bush, a reporter for the Nanaimo News Bulletin. Then Laberge recalled what she’d learned at school and from her parents. She stopped, placed her bike in front of her and began yelling and ringing her bike bell. The cougar froze, then just watched as Laberge rode to a nearby elementary school where she called her dad and asked him to pick her up.
Laberge’s family lives on a rural property and she’d seen cougars before, but this was the first time one had acted aggressively. “You kind of lose your common sense when you’re scared . . . that’s why I started to bike away so fast,” she told Bush. “It’s a good thing I remembered my training or it could have been a lot worse.”
Laberge’s encounter is an excellent example of how understanding predatory behaviour can prevent an encounter from escalating into an attack. That type of knowledge is exactly what’s needed for humans and cougars to share the landscape with the least amount of risk to both. And that’s important because, in addition to being a symbol of all that is beautiful, wild and free, cougars are also an essential component of a healthy environment.
“Cougars are an important wilderness icon and big game species in their own right,” said Mark Boyce of the University of Alberta. “Biologists are increasingly emphasizing the importance of predation by large carnivores in structuring ecosystems. Great care must be made to manage this low-density, wide-ranging predator.”
Cougars are a keystone species, and healthy cougar populations play a vital role in the delicate balance of ecological communities. They cull animals that are old, diseased or weak and their presence prevents ungulates from overgrazing. Cougars also help control smaller mammal populations, and the remains of their kills contribute to the food chain of birds, insects and other animals. Even the decomposition of their prey provides nutrients for the soil. Remove cougars from the ecological equation and over time the dynamics between wildlife and the environment can change dramatically.
“We now have overwhelming evidence that large predators are hugely important in the function of nature, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, the tropics and the Arctic,” said William Ripple. A professor of forestry at Oregon State University and director of its Trophic Cascades Program, Ripple co-authored a report compiling the findings of twenty-four international scientists regarding the decline and destruction of predators worldwide. “The effect is much greater than we thought,” he explained. “It contributes to pollution, loss of habitat, climate change, invasive species and the spread of disease. These predators and processes ultimately protect humans. This isn’t just about them, it’s about us.”
Conservation and management of a species is often a contentious issue involving personal beliefs, public perception and government regulations. Mention the M-word to carnivore experts, big cat organizations and government officials and the reaction is similar to tossing a handful of feed pellets into a tank of hungry fish. There’s a frenzy of opinion but consensus is rare. Some say cougar numbers are increasing; others are adamant they’re on the decline. Various groups advocate controlled hunting; others say it should be banned altogether. And hunting with hounds is a debate all on its own. Many experts consider large chunks of habitat linked by generous dispersal corridors mandatory, while others are convinced dispersal corridors nine metres (thirty feet) wide with plenty of cover are adequate. And each of those beliefs may be correct for different cougar populations in different regions at different times.
As large predators, cougars are a vital component of the environments they inhabit.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature currently lists the puma as a species of least concern with an estimated population of around 50,000. Although some studies have been conducted in Central and South America, information on the big cats in these areas is generally scarce. Some countries protect them while others allow extensive hunting. “Pumas are very adaptable,” noted Howard Quigley, who in his position as executive director of jaguar programs at Panthera visits Latin America regularly. “I’ve seen puma paw prints from the alpine to the Amazon, and in southern Brazil and Bolivia populations are strong. But, like jaguars, they get into trouble with livestock. And they don’t tend to be that populous in densely forested areas like the Amazon. They thrive in more open habitat and those are usually the first areas that are developed for agriculture and ranching. So there have been some conflicts and losses.”
As is the case in countries south of the US, cougar management in Canada and the US varies with each state and province. In the eastern portion of the continent, Florida is home to the only known breeding population east of the Mississippi. In 1967, when their numbers plummeted to less than thirty cats, they were classified as endangered. By the 1980s signs of inbreeding such as kinked tails, cowlicks, heart defects and an inclination toward parasites were evident. Most males had abnormal sperm and one or both of their testicles had failed to descend.
To preserve the population, eight females were imported from Texas. Three died but the rest successfully bred and produced litters free from genetic abnormalities. According to information provided by Ken Warren, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in southern Florida, there are approximately 100 to 160 adult and sub-adult panthers in the southwestern part of the state. Some males have migrated north of the Caloosahatchee River to establish their own territories, too. In 2000, one almost made it to Disney World, thirty-four kilometres (twenty-one miles) southwest of Orlando, before his radio-collar transmitter failed, leaving researchers unsure of his fate. Hopes are high that some females will follow the males’ migration route to form a breeding colony but none have been documented north of the river since 1973.
Information from Panthera
Being hit by vehicles and intraspecies fighting are the major causes of death for Florida panthers. And although there are several public areas that provide good habitat, such as Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, the population needs more space if it is to remain genetically diverse and continue to increase. In 2012, the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area was established to provide habitat for panthers moving north. And a 570-hectare (1,400-acre) area known as the Panther Dispersal Zone was secured to maintain a natural migration corridor.
California, which has banned sports hunting since 1990, is the only other state to protect the big cat to such a degree. Although Marc Kenyon of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates mountain lion numbers at four thousand and dropping, some residents believe the population has peaked and hunting should be reintroduced. In southern portions of the state, an increasing human population and the resulting development threatens lion habitat and has fragmented dispersal corridors. And freeways are a major cause of mortality, as they are in Florida. “Even when an underpass is built for wildlife, we’ve seen lions go right up to it, then cross the road and get killed,” said Winston Vickers of the U C Davis Wildlife Health Center.
Aside from Florida and California, where hunting is banned, the other dozen or so states with confirmed breeding populations of mountain lions control hunting to some extent. Regulations are perhaps the most relaxed in Texas where lions of any age and sex can be hunted and trapped in any numbers at any time of year as long as a person has a hunting licence. Jonah Evans, a wildlife diversity biologist for the Trans Pecos Region of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said the Lone Star state currently has two primary populations of lions. There are no official estimates as to numbers, but the lion population in the western portion of the state is considered healthy while the one in the south is thought to have declined by more than fifty percent. Evans speculated that the reduced numbers are the result of the mountain lions being isolated from other source populations in western Texas and Mexico, combined with habitat loss and possibly overhunting.
As of 2013, Florida is the only location east of the Mississippi with a confirmed breeding population of pumas. “Protect the Panther” license plates raise awareness about the felines and fund conservation efforts. Courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The majority of cougar populations in the western states and provinces are considered healthy and stable. In British Columbia, the cat is classed as a big game species and, as of 2013, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations estimated there are 5,100 to 7,000 cougars in the province. Around 600 of them reside on Vancouver Island, an increase of about fifty percent from previous years. In email correspondence, FLNRO stated, “British Columbia is home to the largest and most intact cougar population of any jurisdiction in North America and they play an important functional role in the ecosystem.” It was therefore a surprise to find out the province has no cougar management plan other than a preliminary draft dating back to 1980. Granted, unless there are conservation concerns, most species don’t have management plans. Cougars are, however, regulated through CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species) as an Appendix II species for which trade is permitted but may need to be regulated, so the province is obligated to develop an updated management plan. It’s been in the works since 2011, or perhaps longer, but as of December 2012 government officials were unable to provide a target completion date.
Like BC, Alberta has a healthy cougar population and regulates hunting. The province has approximately two thousand cougars and is in the process of updating its 1992 management plan. Saskatchewan, with an estimated three to four hundred cougars, is the site of Canada’s most eastern breeding population, which is located in the Cypress Hills. As for the rest of Canada, the big cats have been sighted as far north as the Yukon and Northwest Territories and as far east as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Small populations have been confirmed in Ontario and Quebec but no one knows if they’re breeding. The federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada says there is insufficient data to assess the animal’s status in eastern provinces.
Some eastern states and provinces boast that they’ve never had a human fatality from a cougar attack. No doubt that’s true for the last one hundred years or so, as cougars were extirpated in the last century. But evidence that the big cats are migrating east means governments may need to develop cougar management plans in the future. And more importantly, ensure residents and visitors know the appropriate way to respond if they encounter one of the big cats.
Due to their secretive nature, it’s difficult to determine how many cougars are in any given region, never mind the age, sex and condition of the animals, or prey availability and other considerations necessary for a healthy population. “The main challenge is the same today as when I tracked mountain lions in the seventies,” said Harley Shaw, a former research biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department. “We’re still discovering information about the detailed behaviour of this elusive animal. Mountain lions are so difficult to observe, we’ve just scratched the surface of what their day-to-day behaviour is.”
A recently completed thirteen-year Washington State University (wsu) research project provided some fresh insights into cougar ecology. And the information was significant enough to convince the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to implement a new cougar management plan as of January 2013. It turns out old toms are a stabilizing influence. They’re experienced hunters and usually avoid humans. For obvious reasons, though, they’re the animals trophy hunters seek out. Every time a mature male is shot, one or more young males move into the now vacant territory. And these cats are the ones that often get into trouble with humans. Mature males also regulate how many young males are in the area by chasing them out of their range or killing them. The study, lead by Rob Wielgus, director of WSU’s Large Carnivore Conservation Lab, revealed that overharvesting mature male cougars allows more young males to survive, thus increasing the potential for negative encounters between predators and humans, livestock and game. So an increase in human–cougar altercations might be due to the ages of the animals, not their numbers. Washington’s new equilibrium management plan limits the number of cougars harvested in an effort to retain a more natural age range in the state’s cougar population.
Many studies have taken place since Maurice Hornocker first started radio collaring cougars in the 1960s. But each one only provides a piece of the puzzle that is the puma. An article written by Kyle and Aliah Knopff and Michelle Bacon titled “North of 49: Ongoing Cougar Research in Alberta” noted, “Despite this relative abundance of information there is still much to be learned about these fascinating predators. This is especially true in Canada, where, with a few important exceptions (e.g. the excellent 10-year Southern Alberta study conducted by Orval Pall, Ian Ross, and Martin Jalkotzy in the 1980s and early 1990s), a comparatively small portion of all the cougar research in North America has been undertaken.”
Which brings up a good question. Why is Canada the site of so few long-term, in-depth field studies? Especially British Columbia, which has the largest cougar population in North America, as well as the highest rate of attacks and fatalities. Perhaps funding is more available and generous in the United States, or maybe it’s because that country has more academic wildlife programs. Maurice Hornocker pointed out that there is a wider variety of cougar habitat in the US and that different state fish and game and conservation departments are pressured by constituents to find out if cougars are killing too many deer. “And where you have more people and more cougars sharing the same habitat,” he added, “such as in the suburbs of Colorado and California, that creates more of a demand for studies.”
“Long-term studies are absolutely necessary,” said Howard Quigley, the project director for the Teton Cougar Project in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which began in 2001. “A typical wildlife species study lasts three to five years. If we’d quit within that time period, we wouldn’t have been able to pose and answer so many questions. And the more we know, the more we understand what is needed for cougar conservation.”
In addition to more long-term studies and the funding to support them, information needs to be (and to some degree already is) freely shared by agencies in different regions—as cougars don’t recognize state, provincial and national borders. Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor, who have studied mountain lions for decades in numerous locations, including an intensive ten-year project in New Mexico, advocate management zones. These would be based on geographic terrain and habitat rather than political boundaries. Zones could include regions for sports hunting, controlled killing in regions with high human or livestock populations, and dedicated refuges for mountain lions and other wildlife where needed. As yet, no state or province has opted to explore this innovative concept.
A valuable tool would be a North American DNA database that could be utilized to track cougars as they move from one jurisdiction to another. Standardized forms for recording information about encounters, attacks and fatalities that included information on the age, sex and condition of each cougar, as well as what the cougar and human(s) were doing before and during the incident, would aid researchers searching for commonalities among these events and provide further insight into the behaviour of cougars.
South Dakota has an efficient way of collecting information on its mountain lion population. All lions shot during hunting season must be taken to the state’s Game, Fish and Parks Commission, where biologists measure and weigh the animal, take tissue and tooth samples, and record information regarding sex, age, general health and injuries. After a hunter removes the head, pelt and any edible portions they want, most carcasses are sent to South Dakota State University for a full necropsy.
The leading causes of death for wild pumas are disease and being killed by another cougar. But humans affect the lives of the big cats too and research in southern California indicates that humans and the resulting development are a major threat to the sustainability of some lion populations. Public attitude drives conservation and determines how governments manage large carnivores and respond to altercations. But no matter how rare encounters are, just saying the word “cougar” or “mountain lion” generates strong emotions, ranging from overwhelming fear to absolute awe.
Today, if a cougar is shot after it attacks or kills someone, there’s often a negative reaction from the public. Typical comments in letters to the editor include, “Don’t shoot cougars, we’re in their territory.” “If someone is in cougar territory and gets attacked, too bad, it’s their fault!” “I never report a cougar or bear sighting as I know the authorities will just shoot it.” Conservation officers and mayors have received threatening phone calls and letters after problem cougars have been put down. And cougar hunters and guides have found razor blades in letters and their dogs have been threatened. In the movie Bambi, wild animals are clearly the good guys and humans the bad guys. But in real life there are dangerous people and dangerous cougars.
“When it comes to cougars, our society has some extreme protectionists and some extreme exploiters,” stated Maurice Hornocker. “Somewhere in the middle is the answer. I always advise that when a cougar is habituated and in areas close to humans where there is a potential threat, it should be humanely removed. If possible, that means tranquillizing and releasing it in the wilderness. If that’s not possible, the cat should be humanely euthanized with no apologies made. In North America thousands of dogs and cats are euthanized each year. An attack on a child does much more harm to the cougar’s reputation than removing one bad individual.”
Following David Parker’s attack on Vancouver Island, an online commenter asked, “Did he really have to kill the cougar?” The answer is obvious. It was either kill the cougar or be killed. And if Parker did somehow manage to escape without killing or seriously injuring the cougar, the possibility that it would attack someone else is high. If a cougar attacks a person it’s usually young, old, sick or starving, all conditions that would likely make it desperate enough to try again. Or it has begun to see humans as prey, a view that wouldn’t change due to a failed kill. As one woman who asked to remain anonymous commented, “People have lost touch with the reality of wildlife.” Wild animals are inherently unpredictable and sometimes dangerous. Cougars are highly evolved killing machines and if they turn that energy toward people, human life must be paramount.
That’s often where the decision to shoot a cougar with a tranquillizing dart or a bullet comes in. Depending on the animal’s size, physical condition and the amount of adrenaline coursing through its body, a tranquillizer can take anywhere from five to thirty minutes to render the cat unconscious. That lag time can be a problem if the cat is treed in a neighbourhood or cornered in the bushes at a shopping mall and a lot of people are around. Having a mad, scared and half-doped-up carnivore on the loose for even a short time is a very high-risk situation. And if a cougar is tranquillized, the options are to euthanize it later, take it to a zoo or relocate it. Quietly euthanizing it later might save some bad publicity in the short term but the zoo option is usually a no-go unless the cougar is very young. And relocating cougars is tricky. Wildlife conflict manager Mike Badry, who is with the Conservation Officer Service of the BC Ministry of Environment, said, “Very few cougars are suitable for capture and release. If the cougar is considered a risk to public safety or verified as preying on livestock, it will be killed. If a cougar is in an urban area but has not acted aggressively toward people or pets, and there is an opportunity to safely capture the animal, it is a candidate for release back into a wilderness area.”
But there’s no guarantee relocation will work. Cougars are highly territorial, so if one is dumped in another’s range, chances are it will be chased out. Or there may be a fight between the resident cat and the interloper, resulting in serious injury or death. Some relocated cougars end up right back where they came from. “Most research indicates that relocated mountain lions just bounce around from one home range to another being kicked around by resident lions until they find a clear spot,” said Marc Kenyon, the black bear, mountain lion and wild pig programs coordinator for the state of California. “They get real beat up along the way, which isn’t good as it often results in a dead lion. If we move a lion that’s causing a problem in California, we’re just moving the problem from one person’s backyard to another’s.”
On June 30, 2011, two cougars around eighteen months old were caught and radio collared near Banff National Park, a prime tourist destination in the Rocky Mountains west of Calgary, Alberta. Their mother had been killed and the orphans were following people. As they seemed healthy and curious rather than aggressive, officials decided to move them into the wilderness near Canmore, Alberta. Two weeks later one attacked a dog and cornered three mountain bikers. When the cat refused to leave, even after being pelted with rocks, the bikers called for help on a cellphone. They had to be escorted out of the vicinity by armed RCMP officers. When the cougar was shot, it was obvious that it hadn’t been able to fend for itself and was starving. A couple of weeks later its sibling, also in poor condition, was killed after injuring a six-year-old girl in nearby Bow Valley Provincial Park.
Beginning in August the same year, Squamish, BC, experienced a spike in cougar sightings. Like most of the province, the Squamish area is great cougar country and has experienced aggressive cougars in the past. What was described as a “large, healthy cougar” stalked and approached three groups of mountain bikers in one day near Alice Lake despite their yelling and throwing rocks. Trails were closed but the cougar wasn’t found. By September the community, which averages 40 to 60 cougar sightings per year, had recorded 145.
The evening of September 9, Jim Sandford was closing the back door of his house when he noticed a cougar’s tail less than a metre (two feet) away on the deck. He looked toward the trees at the rear of his Garibaldi Heights property to find another cougar staring at him. The forty-six-year-old had lived in Squamish for twenty years and he’d never seen a cougar until he spotted these two playing with one of his shoes outside the house the week before. Sandford hadn’t reported that sighting but told a reporter, “When they came back . . . it sealed their fate.” Conservation officers killed the young adult cougars around 8:30 that night. As well as being suspects in the stalking of the cyclists, they were becoming increasingly bold around people and had killed at least one house cat.
That night, around 3:45 a.m., the sound of a chirping bird woke Sandford up. The noise would come closer then move away. Curious, he got up and aimed a flashlight outside. That’s when he realized the chirping was the mother cougar looking for her cubs. She too was killed by conservation officers.
Even though it was obvious the cougars weren’t good candidates for relocation, letters to the editor included comments such as “Killing three cougars is criminal” and “Why kill cougars for just hanging around?” Sandford’s take on the situation, however, was solidly based in reality. “We chose to live at the edge of the forest,” he said in an interview with The Province. “If I step back there, I’m prey. If people don’t like that, they can move to a condo in downtown Vancouver.”
That’s where cougar management really starts, with each individual who lives, works or visits cougar country assuming responsibility for the safety of themselves as well as their children, pets and livestock. And a big part of that involves not inviting predators into communities. “People are very tolerant of deer,” said Danielle Thompson of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. “Deer attract large predators; you can’t really have one without the other. By being tolerant of deer we’re sending a positive signal to cougars and wolves that our backyard is a good source of food.”
Deer come into towns and yards to munch on grass, flowers and hedges and the generous handouts some people provide even though it’s illegal to feed wildlife. Community newspapers often run photos from readers showing deer eating, napping and even giving birth in their yards. Wild deer normally do most of their grazing at dawn, dusk and throughout the night, which is also prime dining time for cougars. But in an urban environment, deer quickly learn that people aren’t a threat and become active during the day. Allowing deer to loiter in yards and communities disrupts their natural feeding patterns and can increase the risk of predators making daytime forays into human use areas. Other small mammals such as raccoons have also adapted well to civilization and are found in many cities. They too have the potential to attract predators.
People enjoy watching wildlife and even purchase homes in locations where they can do so. A Washington state study revealed that most people are not motivated to deter wildlife until they or someone in their neighbourhood has a negative encounter. Even when predators such as cougars are near homes, they aren’t always discouraged. There’s more than one YouTube video online showing a family watching a cougar on their deck as it eyes their pet and paws at the sliding glass door. One family in Boulder, Colorado, even invited neighbours over to watch a mountain lion and its two cubs feed on a deer it had killed in their backyard. The only problem was, once the deer was eaten, mama lion started stalking the mom of the house.
The thrill of witnessing seldom-seen wildlife from the perceived safety of a house is hard to resist. But not making noise and scaring the animal off is the same as setting out a welcome mat for carnivores. They soon learn that approaching buildings and humans poses no danger and they may eventually decide humans look like easy prey. The same dynamics come into play if a cougar is seen in the wild and doesn’t immediately run away. Pausing to take photos before aggressively responding to an animal’s presence may convince it to investigate humans more thoroughly, if not this time, perhaps the next. It’s also important to report cougars that don’t flee from humans or that act curious or aggressive as soon as possible, so wildlife officials can track potential problem animals, post warnings at trailheads and alert the public. Reporting sightings also provides an opportunity to attempt to deter the cats with aversive techniques and/or relocate young cougars if possible. But convincing cougars they can’t hang around has to happen before they become habituated.
Gail Loveman took this photograph of her Maine Coon cat, Zeus, and a young mountain lion going nose to nose at the sliding glass door of her home office in 2011. Loveman, who lives on a large acreage outside Boulder, Colorado, said she hasn’t seen any sign of the lion since but has an air horn ready in case it decides to pay another visit. Photo by Gail Loveman
Cougars range over large territories so if one is seen, it might just be passing by. But if it has an uncomfortable experience, it may decide to avoid buildings and other signs of people altogether in the future. Wildlife officials sometimes use rubber bullets to scare them off and residents might want to try bear bangers or the loud clanging of pots and pans from an open window. The blast of an air horn or whistle might also persuade a cougar to move along. For rural residents with more serious concerns, the Mountain Lion Foundation suggests motion-activated devices that squirt blasts of cold water, play recordings of baying hounds or set off strobe lights as possible wildlife deterrents. These devices are most effective if moved or changed from time to time to prevent habituation. An aversive conditioning study of Florida panthers indicated it was possible to instill some degree of avoidance and fear of humans in cougars if such tactics were initiated early enough.
In the mid-2000s, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) began using Karelian dogs in their aversive reconditioning program. Fearless and tenacious, the medium-sized dogs with distinctive black and white markings are often used to hunt large, potentially aggressive game such as bear, moose and wild boar. In more recent years, they’ve been employed to sniff out, chase and deter bears and sometimes cougars that come near human use areas.
The dogs are an important component of a “hard release.” This is when a tranquillized bear or cougar wakes up from its drug-induced nap surrounded by the roar of barking dogs, yelling humans and firecrackers, and possibly experiencing the sharp nip of a few pellets. That’s often enough to convince the animal to stay away from humans. As of June 2012, the WDFW had four Karelian dogs, which are each paired with an enforcement officer for life. The program is funded solely by donations.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife uses Karelian dogs as part of a “hard release” when relocating problem bears and cougars. Yelling, fire crackers and a barking dog are often enough to persuade the predators to avoid humans. Photo courtesy Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Karelian Bear Dog Program
One thing cougar experts, organizations and wildlife officials agree on is the need for more public education. Even though Vancouver Island is the cougar capital of the world, many people living there don’t know the proper way to respond if a cougar is seen—or may even be unaware that the big cats are present in the region. One long-time resident said she’d rather watch a cougar than attempt to scare it away if she saw one nearby. An avid jogger relatively new to Vancouver Island admitted she thought the “Cougar seen here on this date” signs she occasionally saw on running trails were a joke. And some people are convinced that “a healthy, well-fed cougar wouldn’t attack a child in the company of two adults,” or that they won’t eat humans because they’re “too bony.”
Some schools teach children what to do if they see a bear or cougar, while community colleges and recreation centres occasionally offer similar courses to the public. In Wyoming, the Game and Fish Department has offered free “Staying Safe in Bear, Lion and Wolf Country” seminars to the public, and in some states, real estate agents have presented cougar awareness brochures to people purchasing rural properties.
Reading brochures pays off, too. In July 2007 a woman was approached by a cougar while hiking alone on a popular trail in Kootenay National Park in the Rocky Mountains of southeastern BC. According to an article in the Calgary Herald, the cat came within two metres (six feet) and reared up. The woman yelled, threw rocks and swung her backpack at it until it retreated and she was able to return to her vehicle. A park wildlife-conflict specialist said the woman did everything right, which probably saved her life. How did she know what to do? Shortly before arriving at the park she’d stopped at a visitor centre and read a brochure about how to respond to aggressive cougars.
Knowing what to do can prevent an encounter from turning into an attack, and may mean the difference between life and death if there is an attack. The afternoon of May 16, 2007, B C Ministry of Forests technician Wolfgang Beck was working in a proposed logging cut-block north of Sicamous when he glimpsed something moving out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a cougar running toward him. When he waved his arms and yelled the cougar stopped about five metres (sixteen feet) away. Still yelling and keeping his eyes locked on the cat’s, Beck, who happened to have a hatchet in his right hand, grabbed his bear spray canister with his left hand. He squirted some of the spray to test the wind direction. The cougar was just out of reach of the mist and didn’t react.
Beck kept yelling and waving an arm and after a couple of minutes the cougar moved off into thick brush. The fifty-one-year-old threw a few rocks after it and slowly left the cut-block, picking the most open route back to his truck. He remained on high alert and twice spotted the cougar following him. At the truck, Beck contacted his co-worker, who was working nearby, and they both vacated the area. What Beck found most unnerving was that during the standoff the cougar didn’t make a sound, just stared straight at him with its ears forward. And when it vanished into the bush there was no noise at all.
Beck did everything right: he remained calm, acted aggressively at the first sight of the cougar and immediately prepared his defence. Even after the cat disappeared he remained alert and was wise enough to get himself and his colleague out of the vicinity. “I’m always very aware in the bush,” said Beck, who camps, hikes and fishes and has worked in the bush for years. “I’d seen cougars before but only while driving. And I have noticed cougar tracks over the top of mine when hiking out at the end of the day. I knew the basics about what to do, but the bear and cougar safety course I took from Eyer Training Services just a few weeks before the encounter really helped. I don’t know if I would have been able to handle the situation as well without that.”
Studies confirm the need for more public education about cougars. In 2003, Winston Vickers of the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center conducted a survey of southern California residents regarding their feelings about mountain lions. Included were people living within the San Diego city boundary, as well as those adjacent to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park where numerous altercations and one human fatality had occurred in the 1990s. But twenty-three percent of rural residents and sixty-six percent of urban residents were unaware of their close proximity to lion habitat, which ranged from 1.5 to 40 kilometres (1 to 25 miles) respectively.
A 2008 research project for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed that seventy-three percent of the people contacted did not know the most common reason for a cougar to attack (predatory instinct triggered by moving prey) and sixty-six percent did not know what to do if attacked (fight back). And more than fifty percent overestimated cougar-related injuries in the lower forty-eight states. Ninety-nine percent of the 1,200 residents surveyed felt mountain lions were an important and essential component of the ecosystem and have an inherent right to live in the state. And most believed people should accept responsibility for preventing conflicts with cougars. In the California survey, a large majority of urban and rural residents expressed positive feelings toward lions and a high tolerance for their presence. Many perceived their personal risk as low and indicated a willingness to modify their behaviour to coexist with lions. In comparison with similar studies in other states, California and Colorado residents appeared to be more positive about and accepting of lions than other states. Vickers speculated this may be associated with higher levels of education, income and urbanization, as well as consistent messages from wildlife officials and the media about the rarity of lion attacks and what to do if one occurs.
“A significant number of people value lions as part of the landscape and that matters a lot,” noted Walter Boyce, wildlife veterinarian and professor at UC Davis. “The most important thing that can be done is to give people objective information so they can make their own decisions. The information shouldn’t be biased for or against lions but should be the best scientific information about what lions do and how they live so people can make good decisions.”
A 2001 to 2009 experiment in Washington attempted to do just that. Project CAT (Cougars and Teaching) was a collaboration between Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Cle Elum/Roslyn School District and community members, as well as the University of Washington and Central Washington University. The unique program provided students and community members the opportunity to participate in hands-on fieldwork with cougar researchers. They gathered information, wrote reports, made casts of paw prints, collected and analysed scat, and observed cougars being radio collared.
According to researcher Gary Koehler, the children participating in the project had the most effect on changing attitudes about cougar ecology and helping people understand the role of cougars in their neighbourhood. Similar education programs involving young people have been conducted in other communities such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Santa Monica, California.
The media exerts a powerful influence when it comes to public perceptions. In the past they’ve been criticized for sensationalizing attacks and accused of fostering the idea that there’s a blood-thirsty cougar behind every bush. But aside from headlines such as “Toddler snatched from killer jaws,” recent newspaper accounts tend to include the facts of encounters as well as government guidelines on what to do if a person finds themselves in a similar situation.
Unfortunately, even those who should know the right answers sometimes get it wrong. In 2012, after a cougar was seen in a BC park, an employee told a television crew, “Cougars only attack if they’re hurt or startled.” That same year, an online US state trail guide warned people to “never make eye contact with a cougar.” And a 2013 issue of a magazine published specifically for members of western Canada’s fish and wildlife associations ran a story on cougars advising, “To protect oneself from becoming the target of aggression, eye contact should be avoided.” Such inaccurate statements could have serious consequences. And even officials who provide correct information sometimes limit it to “make yourself look big, slowly back away and don’t run,” failing to mention the importance of loud, continuous noise, eye contact and aggressive behaviour to deterring a cougar.
Education, public awareness and involvement are important components of carnivore management and conservation. People need to take personal responsibility for their safety as well as liaise with government agencies to ensure sound strategies are applied. Anywhere there are people and cougars there will be some element of risk. It’s up to humans to make that risk as small as possible.
In the early years of the last century, wolves and grizzly bears were, or nearly were, eradicated from large regions of Canada and the US. But somehow, despite the odds, cougars survived. Howard Quigley, who has been studying cougars for more than twenty-five years, once referred to them as “a supreme survivor, the most successful large predator in the western hemisphere.” He attributes this accomplishment to their ability to adapt. The question is, are humans willing to adapt to cougars?
“I’d say the one big challenge across all cougar range is to get more information out to the public,” Quigley said. “Agencies need to be more proactive about informing people how to live with this amazing animal. The fear factor scares me. There needs to be a certain level of understanding so people know how to live and behave in cougar country. That’s the key to the future. Understanding the beauty of the animals and how to live with them, and not be afraid and want to destroy them.”
Coexisting with cougars isn’t about fear, it’s about knowledge. To be successful it requires some modification of human behaviour and a tolerance for all wildlife, carnivores as well as the cute and cuddly. It means being aware and accountable, and recognizing the intricate balance of nature and the value of all creatures within it.