Cougars

Do cougars still live in the forests of eastern Canada? Here's a newspaper article that looks into that possibility:

Oct 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Nicole Baute
Staff reporter
The animal bolted across the driveway under the bright light of Ashley Mabee's high beams.
It was tan coloured, with huge hind legs and a long tail. The size of a deer, but with a longer body, and lower to the ground.
And it could move.
"I've never seen anything run so fast," says Mabee, 22, who wrote in to the local Milton Canadian Champion after spotting the creature a few weeks ago, in front of her parents' country home in Moffat, west of Toronto. Mabee says she wasn't the first to spot a large cat in the area – two friends told her they had recently seen similar animals, and in August a woman from Campbellville had told the Champion she saw something like a cougar on a neighbour's farm.
The Ontario cougar exists, but very few sightings are ever confirmed. That is both because of the animal's incredibly elusive nature and the way it has captured the imaginations of both rural and urban dwellers. The possibility of an encounter with the mountain cat, and the dangerous world of the wild that it represents, so often tucked out of sight, is thrilling. We want to believe in the cougar. It is simultaneously fact and fable.
There is another story circling in the Milton area, which goes something like this: There was a couple that owned a hobby farm in the area, and had three secret, illegal, exotic pets: two cougars and a black panther. A few years ago their marriage went sour and the couple split. The man was left with the cats, but he grew tired of taking care of them, and decided to simply let them go.
Shortly afterward, he died, and his ex-wife died sometime later. It's said the animals are still spotted from time to time, roaming the area.
"No one knows if it's 100 per cent true, or if it's just a rumour," Mabee says. "I believe it."
Experts say illegal pets are indeed one possible source of the Ontario cougar. But they don't know for sure.
There have been roughly 1,000 reported cougar sightings in Ontario since 2002, but only a handful of them have been confirmed – by photos, track marks, or DNA collected from scat. Confirmed locations include the Niagara Falls area, Franktown, which is near Ottawa, Orillia, and near Port Coborne, on the northeast shore of Lake Erie.
But the last wild cougar found, shot and killed in Ontario was in 1884, near Creemore, Ont., south of Collingwood.
"We have some evidence that cougars do exist in Ontario," says Rick Rosatte, a senior research scientist in the wildlife research and development section at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
"But the big question is, where did they come from? Were they always here? Were they native cougars or are they cougars that have dispersed from the U.S.?"
There are many more questions than answers when it comes to the elusive puma, a natural born killer with a muscular saunter and a sharp, otherworldly growl.
In 2006, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources launched a research project to track the cougar, and this summer vowed to prepare a recovery plan for it and 127 other endangered or threatened species, by 2013. The ministry is working closely with the Ontario Puma Foundation, which was established in 2002 and has already developed a recovery plan for the animal.
Stuart Kenn, president of the Ontario Puma Foundation, has been tracking the animal for 30 years, since he was a practically a child. He says that in the last 100 years the puma has been making a comeback in Ontario, where it thrived until it was persecuted by European hunters in the 1800s.
He estimates that there are 500 to 550 cougars in the province, and says there is a "cougar corridor" bordered by Ottawa, Peterborough and Owen Sound to the south, and North Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie to the north.
But Kenn has never seen a cougar in the flesh.
"It's really mysterious," he says. "I'm out in the forest. I've collected its scat, its tracks, its hair, kill sites, scrapes, den locations, you name it, I've come across everything from this animal. I've never seen the animal itself. It does circles around me."
Some of the animals commonly mistaken for cougars: deer, lynx, coyotes, fishers, dogs, and house cats. Big ones.
In a study of cougar sightings in Oregon, a state that 5,000 cougars call home, only seven per cent were proven, in fact, to be of cougars, Rosatte says. And that is in a place with a large and healthy cougar population.
"The problem is people generally see an animal for a fleeting moment, a second or two, and normally it's at long distance, and the problem is the brain just can't process information that quickly, and they end up thinking they see a cougar."
Rosatte interviews people who think they've seen one, tries to determine the animal's size, and, when sites look promising, sets up trail cameras triggered by motion and heat.
He gets many, many false alarms – especially after media reports of cougars spotted in an area, which tend to set off a rash of sightings.
Just this March, police and media in the Hamilton area were telling residents that a cougar was hit on the 403. It turned out to be a coyote.
People seem to want to believe that the creature is lurking just beyond their backyard, making the Ontario cougar a cultural phenomenon as much as a natural one.
John Colarusso, a professor of anthropology and linguistics at McMaster University and a lover of myth, has a theory for why this might be. "There is, hidden in our minds, an opposition between our civilization, our cities, our towns, and the wild," he says.
Before nature was romanticized by 19th-century painting and categorized through the rise of science, wilderness was seen as a scary, dangerous place.
"That's why we have cities," Colarusso says. "People wanted to be able to get inside the city gates, and hide from the wolf pack or whatever. It was a safe place, it had laws, it had moral judgments, it had authority, it had food supplies, order. And you weren't out at the mercy of the elements and of nature.
"Now, we don't see nature that way any more," Colarusso says. "But I think somewhere deep down inside, we do. And the idea that maybe there's a mountain lion in suburbia here, makes it sort of scary. I think it makes the mundane more exciting, even if you never see it."
Colarusso is fascinated by stories of sasquatches, and of the Beast of Gevaudan, said to have ravaged the French countryside in the 18th century, and of the chupacabra, a doglike creature said to suck the blood out of livestock, a tale native to Puerto Rico.
But Colarusso is no skeptic. He says he's heard enough reports of sasquatches to believe that they could exist, and as for the cougar, well, he once had a bobcat with calico markings fall out of a tree in his yard, so maybe anything's possible.
He says reports of these creatures – even reports from people with deep connections to the natural world – cause a certain degree of social anxiety. Those who cry cougar might be ostracized by their community, partially because they are challenging authoritative sources of knowledge.
"I think it's trouble for the scientist, they want to draw a line," he says. "I think they want to say, on this side is science and this is folk belief."

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Great artical Bushrat Cool

Nice to see the Big Kittie's are still out and about there. There are many here in BC.
And not once in my entire life have i seen one. ANd ive been hiking since i was 9 years old. Elusive is almost an inderstatment, lol.

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Awesome animal we have few down here in TN I've only actually witnessed one in my life in the wild while bowhunting deer it came down a deer trail and made not a sound I was 10 ft up in a pine tree with my recurve, it wasnt 10 yds from me as it went by .

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Give me my pack a bag of rice and my knife I'll handle the rest

Just because we don't see cougars doesn't mean they don't see us. I read a report of people tracking a cougar in the snow. The cougar's tracks joined up with those of a cross country skier. The cougar tracks were on top of the ski tracks, so the cougar was following the skier. At one point the ski trail went around a long bend. According to the tracks, the cougar had short cutted the bend to get ahead of the skier, who it watched from a tree before again following on the trail. The skier no doubt had no idea he was being observed. Surprised

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Very true, just because ive never seen one, doesn't mean they haven't been watching me Surprised

_________________
A Knifeless Man is a Lifeless Man
Canadian To The Core
Carry Less by Knowing More
Knowledge Weighs Nothing

Watch out!! He could be stalking you now. Shocked

Here's what you need:

yeah we have cougers here in Washington, in fact my little cousin has seen 2 of them in his back yard they kinda live in the woods. Shocked

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I have hiked very little in (known) cougar habitat, and hardly given them a thought when I did. But reading a book titled "Cat Attack" by Jo Deurbrouck and Dean Miller really opened my eyes. It seems that cougar attacks on humans are increasing tremendously as development destroys their habitat. Housing subdivisions are going up right where cougars had previously lived undetected by us. This means that encounters are taking place in locations that were previously unheard of. You don't have to go deep into the wilderness to risk an attack any more. (In fact, in the news today is a story about police shooting a cougar in a back yard in Saskatoon. Plus look at linsleyk's post above.)
I recommend the book to anyone with an interest in how man and cougar are living closer together than ever before, but be warned: it's not for the faint of heart. Even I found it hard reading in places.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Port Franks is in southern Ontario. It's near the south end of Lake Huron, about 150 miles west of Toronto and 100 miles north of Detroit and Windsor. It is mostly farm land, small towns, and small wood lots. There are no sizeable wilderness areas. This is from a local newspaper:

Suspected cougar tracks prove inconclusive
The mystery over large cats sighting in Lambton continues
Posted By By DAN McCAFFERY The Observer
Posted 5 hours ago

PORT FRANKS — Evidence that paw prints found here belong to a cougar is inconclusive, an expert says.
Rick Rosatte, a senior research scientist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, took a look at images of the prints, which were sent to him by Port Franks resident Bob Rutledge.
"He's got questions in his mind about whether they are actually cat (prints) or not because they were in real loose top soil and the print isn't completely definable," Rutledge said. "He said it possibly is (a cougar's print) or there is a good possibility that is is a very large dog. He is not going to come down and say one way or the other."
Rutledge said he is willing to accept that the prints may not belong to a big cat.
But he's positive there are cougars in the area.
"I told him I'm willing to accept whatever he's saying on this," Rutledge said. "I'm not looking for publicity. But I have no doubt we've got them here because I've seen them. We've sat in the window and watched them. And other people out here have seen them, it's not just me."
Rutledge said he will try to get a photo of one of the animals. And he may "loosen up the soil in the area where they are coming in (so a better paw print can be obtained)."
Rutledge said it isn't surprising that the cats aren't seen in the area on a regular basis because they have a range of 40 to 60 miles.
Other experts who have taken a look at plaster casts he made of the prints, including a university professor and a professional trapper, believe that they do belong to a cougar, he said.
He added he has seen cougars and a large black cat on 12 to 15 occasions over the past three months.
After he found "monstrous-sized cat prints" in fresh soil spread on his Chester Trail property this past summer, he contacted an artist friend, who made plaster casts for him.
Rutledge said he routinely feeds animals on his property, leaving table scraps out for them at night. They are usually consumed by raccoons or possums, but he has seen cougars feasting on his offerings on several occasions. Because the food is left under a light, he has seen the cats "quite plainly."
Rutledge has observed both a black animal, which he believes is a panther, and a tan-coloured animal, which he suspects is a cougar.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Okay, this is getting plain nuts. Pickering is a bedroom community next to Toronto,
the country's largest city. It's ground zero for urban sprawl. There is however, the
Rouge Valley on the boundary between the two cities. It is a wliderness area that is
also one North America's largest urban parks. I live about 10 miles from it and have
been there twice this year. Do I have to carry my spear when I go in the future?
Please: If you are crazy enough to own a cougar, keep the @#*+%# thing inside.

October 30, 2008
Mountain lion sightings in Pickering
By IRENE THOMAIDIS, Sun Media

Durham police are warning Pickering residents of a possible mountain lion on the loose.
"We have heard of two independent reports describing an animal similar to a mountain
lion, obviously we have to take that seriously," Durham Regional Police spokesman
Dave Selby said.
Both sightings were in the area of Douglas Park in the Liverpool Rd. and Bayly St. area.
The first report was made to Pickering Animal Services on Oct. 16 by an adult walking in
the park. The agency received a second report from a 12-year-old boy on Wednesday.
"It could very well be an exotic pet on the loose," Selby said. "Years ago, we had tiger
sightings reported and it turns out someone was keeping a tiger as an exotic pet and
it broke free, so that's definitely a possibility."
Native mountain lions, or cougars, have not been seen in Ontario since 1884, Ministry
of Natural Resources spokesman John Cooper said.
He advises residents in the area to be alert to wildlife, to travel in groups and to stay
out out of wooded areas at dusk and dawn.
"It's also a good idea to carry a whistle and use it to scare off the animal," Cooper said.
"If you see an animal that you feel threatened by, call 911 immediately."
Anyone with information about this investigation is asked to call Durham police
at 1-888-579-1520.

_________________

"The monkeys are throwing stuff at me again."
-Survivorman in Costa Rica

Geez.

Some people...