Cougars have been stalking humans in unprecedented numbers in . Why do they prey on us and how can we live safely in their territory?

BY TERRY GLAVIN

t was a perfectly ordinary August afternoon in 2002 in Port Alice, B.C., when David Parker de- cided to go for a walk. The 61-year-old retired mill- maintenance foreman had been working on the roof of his small house on Marine Drive and had felt a bit of a cramp in one of his legs. He reckoned a walk would do him good, so he headed out on a route he was accustomed to taking on his evening strolls. IHe strode down a gravel road that connects Port Alice, a pulp-mill village on ’s northwest coast, with the Jeune Landing log-sorting yard on Neroutsos Inlet. About a kilometre and a half from Jeune Landing, it started to rain. Parker had just ducked under a rock ledge at the side of the road to wait out the downpour when he thought he heard a noise behind him and turned to see what it was. At that very moment, Parker found himself staring into the eyes of a healthy young male Puma concolor, an animal that goes by many names: cougar, mountain lion, puma, panther, catamount, night crier, ghost walker, swamp devil. This one was an arm’s length from his face. He turned to run. The cougar pounced, and Parker was knocked face down in a ditch. The predator clung to his COUGARCOUGAR ATTACK!ATTACK! back, sinking its teeth into his skull. Within seconds, most of Parker’s scalp was torn away. His jaw was broken, his left cheekbone was cracked, and the orbital bones of his left tem- ple were crushed. His right ear was hanging by a thread of skin. “I remember thinking I’d never see my wife again,” says Parker. “I remember thinking, well, this is where it all ends.” But then and there, he decided he wasn’t going to die on a rainy afternoon in a shallow ditch beside a dirt road on the out- skirts of Port Alice. While the cougar was tearing at him with its claws and pulling away bits of his scalp, Parker reached for a small pocket knife in a sheath attached to his belt. “You fight back,” he says, “because that’s all there is left to do.” At the moment Parker reached for his knife, the cougar bit

Retired pulp-mill worker David Parker survived a cougar attack on a gravel road on northern Vancouver Island. The frequency of such attacks is rising, as human activities

MARINA DODIS increasingly encroach upon cougar habitat.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC 5 3 ougar attacks aren’t exactly unheard of in Port Alice, a village of about 1,100 people nestled against the rain forest south of remote Sound. House cats routinely fall prey to hungry cougars. It’s the same in all Cthe towns and villages around the sound — , Quatsino, Coal Harbour, Holberg. Cougars come with the country. That’s the way it’s always been. Still, something un- usual seems to be going on. In the three years before Parker’s attack, three cougars were shot within sight of his house. One, spotted in his driveway, was reported to have been stalking children on their way to school. Another had attacked a dog on a trail behind Parker’s place. It, too, was tracked down and killed. The third cougar was shot after becoming a routine nuisance at Port Al- ice’s public works yard. The year before Parker’s grisly encounter, a worker was dri- ving home from his shift at the Western Pulp mill when he found a cougar attacking a man in the middle of the road just outside of town. The man, a tugboat captain from Seattle, had been riding his bicycle back to his moored boat after din- ner in Port Alice when the cougar jumped him from behind, knocking him off his bike. His rescuer had to beat the cougar about the head, first with his lunch pail, then with the victim’s bicycle, to get him off the man. In 1992, a cougar walked onto the playground of an ele- mentary school at Kyuquot, about 50 kilometres across the mountains from Port Alice, and killed an eight-year-old boy. Two years later, a seven-year-old boy was walking to

MARINA DODIS school at Gold River, 120 kilometres southeast of Kyuquot, Parker used this knife to inflict a mortal wound on the when he was attacked by a cougar and dragged into the cougar as it was biting his head. He advises people in bushes. His father arrived on the scene and scared away the cougar country to “be very, very wary.” animal. Nearby, several months later, a cougar attacked an RCMP constable on horseback. Then a logger was jumped his face, causing his right eye to protrude from its socket. in Zeballos, and two campers had to use an axe to fight off Still, he managed to unfold the knife’s eight-centimetre an emaciated cougar south of . blade. He plunged it into the cougar’s neck and, with his It all added up to an especially nasty spate of cougar attacks other hand, held onto the animal. Moments later, the for such a small area. But it wasn’t happening only in and cougar stopped struggling and gave up its final breath. With around Vancouver Island’s northern coastal villages. Attacks blood streaming from his face and head, Parker stood up and have been on the rise throughout the animal’s range: al- slowly started walking to Jeune Landing. most half of all the attacks recorded in the past century “I just put one foot in front of the other,” he says. “I have occurred during the past decade. thought I’d try to get as far as I could before I collapsed. In 1991, Paul Beier, a wildlife ecologist at Northern Ari- That’s all I had on my mind.” zona University in Flagstaff, published a detailed study of At the landing, a worker found Parker staggering down cougar attacks in North America over the previous 100 years. the road. He was rushed south by air ambulance to Victo- He had searched newspaper archives, popular magazines and ria’s Royal Jubilee Hospital, where he spent more than 10 academic journals and had contacted wildlife agencies in Al- hours in surgery. berta, British Columbia and all 12 western American states. Over the next two years, Parker would make more than 30 He found that more people throughout North America had visits to doctors and surgeons in Victoria, a seven-hour drive been attacked by cougars since 1970 than during the entire each way. It took 350 staples to secure his scalp back to his skull, 80-year stretch from 1890 to 1970. Sixty-eight percent of the 200 stitches to close the gashes on his face and several plates and 53 confirmed attacks from 1890 to 1990 had occurred after metal screws to reconstruct his jaw. Then there was the constant 1970. More people were dying in cougar attacks too. Between pain, the recurring nightmares and the anger. But nowadays, 1890 and 1970, there had been only four fatalities. Between Parker is stoic about it all. He’s back playing old-timers hockey 1970 and 1990, there were five. twice a week, and he’s curling again. “I was in the wrong place Beier revisited his survey in 2001, and his new findings

at the wrong time,” he says. “That’s about all there was to it.” were even more disturbing. Of 98 cougar attacks in North MIKE ANICH/AGE/FIRSTLIGHT.CA

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Safety in cougar country

Q OSTPEOPLEWILLNEVER glimpse a cougar in the wild, 0 10 20 km u een C much less have a confrontation with one. But even though har M lo tt conflicts between cougars and humans are extremely rare, peo- e S CAPE SCOTT tra ple who live in or visit cougar country should be prepared. The PROV. PARK it Port Hardy following advice from the British Columbia Ministry of Water, Holberg Coal Port Land and Air Protection will reduce your risk of a cougar attack Harbour McNeill and prepare you in the unlikely event one occurs. Quatsino Winter Harbour Home and yard: Don’t attract or feed wildlife, especially deer Sound ino and raccoons. These are natural prey and may attract a hungry ats Jeune Landing Qu NIMPKISH LAKE PACIFIC Neroutsos PROV. PARK cougar. Consider getting a watchdog, because it can smell, hear Inlet Port Alice and see a cougar sooner than a human can. Dogs don’t deter OCEAN cougars, but they may distract one from attacking a human.

BROOKS TAHSISH-KWOIS Pets: Roaming pets are easy prey. Bring your pets inside at PENINSULA PROV. PARK PROV. PARK night. If they must be left out, keep them in a kennel with a Enlarged secure top. Don’t feed pets outside. This attracts young cougars area Port Hardy and many small animals, such as mice and raccoons, upon which Kyuquot cougars prey. Keep livestock in a closed shed or barn at night. Port Alice Children: Cougars seem to be attracted to children, possibly because their high-pitched voices, small size and erratic move- Zeballos Campbell River ments make cougars identify them as prey. Encourage children V A N Gold River to play outdoors in supervised groups. Fence in play areas. CO Courtenay U Make sure children return home before dusk and stay in until V ER Parksville after dawn. If there have been cougar sightings, escort children Port to the school bus stop in the early morning. Clear away any IS LA Alberni JAMES GRITZ/FIRSTLIGHT.CA; PREVIOUS PAGES: STEPHEN KRASEMANN/DR K PHOTO ND Mayne I. shrubs from around the bus stop, and have a light installed as a Duncan general safety precaution. Sidney Hiking or working in cougar country: Don’t hike alone. R Vancouver Island has always been a good 0 255075 km VICTORIA Make enough noise to prevent surprising a cougar. Carry a sturdy walking stick to use as a weapon if necessary. Keep place for cougars. There are no grizzly bears, children close by and under control. Watch for cougar tracks and signs. Cougars cover unconsumed portions of their kills with soil and leaf litter. Avoid these food caches. Cougar kittens lynx or bobcats. are usually well hidden, but if you chance upon some, don’t approach them or attempt to pick them up. A female will de- America from 1890 to 2001, almost half had occurred in the Instinctive and effective predators, cougars stalk slowly fend her young, so leave the area immediately. 1990s. Seven people had been killed during that decade. then charge their prey in short high-speed bursts. On Encountering a cougar: Even though it normally avoids con- Cougar sightings are also rising rapidly, and not just in the leaving the den, young cougars (PREVIOUS PAGES) become frontations, a cougar is unpredictable. Never approach a cougar. provinces and states where they’re conventionally seen. They independent from their mothers and may roam widely in BRITISH A cougar feeding on a kill is dangerous. Always give a cougar an COLUMBIA ALBERTA QUEBEC are being reported with increasing frequency in parts of search of unoccupied territory. This is when they are most SASK. MAN. escape route. Stay calm. Talk to the cougar in a confident voice. P.E.I. Vancouver Canmore Lake Abitibi Canada and the United States where they were believed to likely to conflict with humans. Island ONTARIO N.B. N.S. Lift all children off the ground immediately. Children frighten Tulameen Juniper have been hunted out generations ago. easily, and their rapid movements may provoke an attack. Don’t WASH. OTTAWAR MONT. Sault Ste. Marie Monkland run. Try to back away from the cougar slowly. Sudden move- Mainly, more people are spending more time in wilderness ORE. IDAHO ment or flight may trigger an instinctive attack. Don’t turn your o are cougar populations on the rise? Or are we areas than ever before, says Beier, especially in California, WYO. just encroaching more on their territory? Beier says Colorado and Washington. Wherever human population Sacramento U. S. A. back on the cougar. Face it, remain upright, and do all you can NEV. CALIF. UTAH Denver we should be very careful not to jump to conclusions growth and the expansion of suburbs encroach upon prime COLO. to enlarge your image. Don’t crouch down or try to hide. Pick about what’s happening with North America’s cougar habitat, human-cougar encounters take an upswing. Flagstaff up sticks or branches, and wave them about. ARIZ. N.M. cougars. With a creature like this, things are never The 1990s also appear to have been the worst decade in If a cougar becomes aggressive: Arm yourself with a large quite what they seem. For instance, the dramatic rise in en- North American history for attacks involving sharks, alliga- TEXAS stick, throw rocks, and speak loudly and firmly. Convince the S FLA. counters between people and cougars in the western United tors and bears. cougar that you are a threat, not prey. If a cougar attacks, fight MEXICO States is probably not because cougar numbers are increasing, Nearly half of the attacks Beier documented in North Cougar (Puma concolor) back! Many people survive cougar attacks by fighting back with Beier insists. Some cougar populations may have recovered America from 1890 to 1990 occurred in British Columbia, Original range anything at hand, including rocks, sticks, bare fists, pocket slightly in recent years, but government agencies in many ju- which stands to reason, because the province is about the size Current primary range knives and fishing poles. risdictions are killing as many “problem” cougars every year as of California, Oregon and Washington combined. Mean-

were once killed by bounty collectors and recreational hunters. while, the B.C. government’s own tracking shows 63 cougar STEVEN FICK/CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC; SOURCE FOR RANGE: B. C. THOMPS ON AND J. A. CHAPMAN (EDS.), WILD MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA , 2003

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attacks in the province in the past century, with about half oc- curring on Vancouver Island. Eighteen of those 63 attacks took place between 1990 and 2001, and half of those were on Vancouver Island. The island has always been a good place for cougars. Wolves offer some competition, but there are no grizzly bears, lynx or bobcats. Its more than 30,000 square kilo- metres are rugged, mountainous, heavily wooded and sparsely populated. Some 700,000 people live there, mostly in and around Victoria, on the island’s south coast. Cougar encounters should come as no surprise — most of the island’s fishing villages and sawmill towns are situated adjacent to vast

A. H. MAYNARD/BC ARCHIVES/G-03184 cedar, hemlock and Douglas fir forests that have always pro- A hunting group proudly displays its quarry near Victoria vided ideal habitat for coastal blacktail deer and Roosevelt elk, in 1920, when cougar bounty programs were in full two of the cougar’s favourite prey. swing across the continent. The increase in cougar attacks on Vancouver Island involves factors that run counter to patterns elsewhere in North A predator’s natural history America. Outdoor recreation certainly has been on the rise on the island, as elsewhere, but something else has been going on, HECOUGARBELONGS to an ancient species that was cunning according to provincial wildlife biologists. Vancouver Island’s Tenough to survive the post-Pleistocene extinctions some cougar population has actually been falling in recent years. In 9,000 years ago, which carried away other North American carni- 1995, cougars on the island were believed to number 700 to vores, including the entelodont, a gigantic boarlike, rhinoceros- 800. By 2001, provincial government biologists estimated that eating creature with a metre-long head, and the giant short-faced perhaps half that number remained, mainly due to a collapse bear, an animal twice the size of a grizzly. in the number of coastal blacktail deer. Like all cats large and small, this elusive predator’s remarkable Vancouver Island’s deer population fell from an estimated physical features help explain its lethal prowess and thus its long- 200,000 animals in 1980 to 55,000 in 2001. The collapse is term success. Its padded feet have webbing and hair between the a bit of a mystery, but it appears to be at least partly related toes, which it walks on, the stealthiest of hunters. Each toe has a to a rise in the wolf population after the 1970s and to compressed, curved, retractable claw, withdrawn when walking changes in the island’s forest cover. but extended when climbing or slashing prey. The cougar also has “What’s been happening is a bigger drop in deer popula- large temporalis and masseter muscles in its face and jaw and long tions than people have seen in their lifetimes on Vancouver canines, with which it can sever the spinal cord of its prey. Farther Island,” says Doug Janz, a senior provincial fish and wildlife back in the mouth are sharp carnassial teeth, enabling it to tear off scientist on the island. “The glory days of deer hunting large chunks of flesh, which it swallows whole. It preys mainly on were back in the 1960s and 1970s, and those days are over.” deer, elk, moose and woodland caribou. Clear-cut tracts, which provided a bonanza of browsing Historically, cougars have spread from the Yukon to Tierra del pasture for deer beginning in the 1930s, are now filling in Fuego, at Argentina’s southern tip, and from east to west across with dense young stands. Thickets of immature trees and net- North America, anywhere deer and elk were available. But the big works of logging roads don’t make great deer habitat and ap- cats were hunted relentlessly from the earliest days of European pear to have given cougars a distinct hunting advantage. settlement. By the end of the 19th century, they were extirpated The roads create “edge” habitat that, along with the cover of from much of the eastern half of the continent. Wherever cougars dense thickets, gives cougars ideal ambush sites. remained in the West, bounty hunters pursued them through The result, says Janz, is a sad but predictable story. When most of the next century, exterminating them because they the deer population falls, young adult cougars move farther preyed on game and farm animals and sometimes people. afield for sufficient prey. They start appearing in more settled Cougars were never numerous on the Canadian prairies or the areas, where they get themselves into trouble. They show up American plains, but in the Far West, the bounty carnage was in subdivisions and chicken coops in Parksville and Courte- astonishing. California paid bounties on 12,452 cougars from nay. They stalk flocks of sheep in fields around Campbell 1907 to 1963, an average of 222 a year. Across British Columbia, River and Duncan. And they start wandering through mill more than 16,000 cougars were shot for the government bounty towns such as Port Alice. offered between 1910 and 1957, an average of 340 a year. Every In 1997, Vancouver Island conservation officers shot 50 province and state now regulates cougar hunting in some way, cougars, the second highest number of problem cougars killed but hunters are no longer the biggest threat: habitat lost to agri- there in a quarter century. That was also the year the greatest culture, forestry, mining and settlement has rendered vast regions number of cougars were killed by hunters on Vancouver Island uninhabitable, to the point where Vancouver Island has become in a quarter century: 83. Hunting regulations are generally the last great redoubt of the cougar in North America. aimed at curbing the cougar population to give humans a

T.G. competitive edge in the hunt for deer and elk but leaving PREVIOUS PAGES: RENEE LYNN/PHOTO RESEARCHERS

6 2 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MAY/JUNE 2004 DARYL BENSON/MASTERFILE The normally elusive predators have become more visible and thus easier prey.

The eastern enigma

N NOVEMBER 1992, two wildlife officers in a forest near from the nearly extinct population of Florida panthers, says Paul IJuniper, N.B., followed the tracks of what appeared to be a Beier, a Northern Arizona University wildcat biologist. cougar, until they lost their quarry. But they did find some scat, The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada which they sent to the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa designated the eastern cougar population endangered in 1978. In for analysis. The museum’s curator determined that hairs in the 1998, the status was re-examined and designated data-deficient. scat were from the legs of a cougar. The previous confirmed The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources remains equally neutral sighting of a cougar in New Brunswick was in 1841. In May on the question of Ontario’s cougars, but the recently established 1992, a young male cougar was shot and killed near Lake Abitibi Ontario Puma Foundation (which prefers the taxonomically correct in Quebec, the first confirmation of a cougar in the province term) has no doubts at all that the cats are out there. The founda- since the 1860s. The last cougar in Ontario was said to have tion was established in 2002 to investigate the growing number of been killed by a T. W. White of Creemore, Ont., in January 1884. cougar sightings in Ontario and obtain the most accurate evidence But there’s no use telling that to David Wood of Monkland, Ont., of cougars in the province. near Cornwall. Wood swears that he was attacked by a cougar in “We have [recorded sightings, scat, tracks or vocalizations of] his backyard in August 2001 and that he saw the cat again in the 108 animals between Sault Ste. Marie and Ottawa,” says founda- same place the next day. tion president Stuart Kenn. “There are about 300 animals in On- Cougar sightings are now commonplace in Eastern Canada. But tario.” Such a precise statement about cougar numbers is based it is unlikely that a relict population of the once abundant eastern on the foundation’s analysis of sightings, habitat, prey abundance cougar (Puma concolor couguar), long considered a distinct sub- and human settlement densities in the province. “The next step,” species, is re-establishing itself. Today’s eastern cougars are proba- says Kenn, “is to preserve key corridors and areas that are impera- bly escaped captives or their offspring and individuals straying tive to the rehabilitation of the puma.” from populations in Western Canada and Texas and perhaps even T.G.

6 4 CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC MAY/JUNE 2004 STEPHEN KRASEMANN/DRK PHOTO enough game animals for cougars too. Sport hunting for A cougar can cover a distance of up to six metres in one cougars in British Columbia is a tradition as old as the leap. Weighing as much as 100 kilograms and reaching province, but government wildlife officials have lately recog- 2.7 metres in length, a third of which is tail, the cat can kill nized that hunting is taking a toll. These days, just when the prey twice its weight by snapping the animal’s neck with its cougar population can least sustain itself, the normally elusive strong jaws and sinking its four-centimetre fangs into the predators have become more visible and thus easier prey. spine. Its abrasive tongue helps strip meat from the bones. cougar-control strategies or cougar-population trends or even hese grim trends are reflected in how a cougar behaviour. It’s about human behaviour. Subdivisions day’s work has changed for Gerry Brunham, a get built beside thick stands of old-growth cedar. Jogging trails seasoned conservation officer with decades of are punched through high mountain forests. We start to experience dealing with problem cougars, imagine that wilderness exists just for us. Then we find our- mostly on Vancouver Island. Of the roughly selves face to face with cougars. What do we do then? T400 cougar complaints he has responded to in his 32 years Brunham says the question is largely academic: “Most of service, 340 of them have been lodged since 1990. people attacked by cougars never even saw it coming.” But Usually, people don’t want to see a cougar shot, says he does have some advice, based on his own years of expe- Brunham. Even when a cougar ends up in a residential area, rience, and it is the same advice offered by wildlife biologists most people want it anaesthetized and relocated. But that’s who have conducted in-depth studies of human-cougar en- rarely the wisest or kindest thing to do. “We know now, af- counters throughout North America. Don’t turn away from ter all these years, that relocation is usually not a viable op- the animal. Don’t run. Make yourself look big. Shout. Bark. tion,” he says. “It doesn’t really work.” Growl. Act like a big, mean predator. Do not play dead. It It’s one thing if it’s just a matter of a young cougar that does not work with cougars. And if the cat attacks, Brunham has found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But says, fight back, just as David Parker did. if it’s a hungry young cougar and there’s really nowhere for That is Parker’s advice too. it to go, shooting the animal can be the merciful thing to do. “I’m a survivor,” he says. “And I can tell you, you have to The important thing is to be able to distinguish between the be very, very wary of these animals.” two circumstances. “Cougars live among us, and most of them, most of the time, don’t cause anybody any problems. A cougar walking through Terry Glavin is a writer based on Mayne Island, B.C. a subdivision near a forest, that’s not a problem,” says Brunham. “A cougar that jumps through your front window, going after To comment on this article, please e-mail editor@canadian your cat — that’s a problem.” geographic.ca. For exclusive web material related to this story, But there comes a point when the problem isn’t about please visit www.canadiangeographic.ca/indepth.

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