Cougars in Canada

Tags:
Canada, Cougar, Attacks, Hunting, Range

Click below for a downloadable PDF of a history of and update on the status of Canada's Cougars:

Cougars in Canada_PDF - 245.6KB
Cougars in Canada

A special thanks to Corinna Wainwright, Chris Darimont, Paul Paquet, and Chris Genovali of Raincoast Conservation Foundation for providing this text.

RECENT NEWS:

The Squeeze Is On For BC¹s Big Cats ~ Chris Genovali

Island Tides
July 16-29, 2009

A recent cougar attack in Squamish has brought to the fore BC¹s
failure to manage these top-level predators. Reports that BC
has 4-6,000 cougars have no scientific basis. In fact, since
little or no effort has been made to study BC¹s cougars, there is no
reliable method to assess cougar numbers.

A preliminary BC cougar-management plan drafted in 1980
discussed habitat issues and cautioned that provincial cougar
populations would likely fall in the near future as a result of habitat
loss and prey population decline and recommending cougar
conservation through protection of cougar and prey habitat‹30-
year-old advice that the provincial government has yet to take.

According to Raincoast Conservation¹s senior scientist, large
carnivore expert Dr Paul Paquet, Œthe distribution of cougars was
once the largest of any land mammal in the western hemisphere.
However, the historic North American range has been reduced by
50%. Three subspecies are found in western Canada: the Vancouver
Island cougar, the Coastal cougar and the Rocky Mountains cougar.
Owing to extirpation elsewhere, BC harbours most of the remaining
cougar population in Canada.¹

Deer on Vancouver Island‹the main prey species for cougars‹
have dropped from 200,000 to around 55,000 in the last 20 years.
A major factor behind the decline is the loss of old-growth forest, an
important habitat for Blacktail deer. Out of 91 primary watersheds
over 5,000 hectares, only six are left intact; not one watershed on
eastern Vancouver Island remains intact or is protected‹and 75% of
the Island¹s productive ancient forests have been logged.

As prey decreases, so do its predators: the Ministry of
Environment estimates that Vancouver Island¹s cougar population
has fallen from approximately 750 in 1995 to around 350.

Settlement Encroachment

It has been confounding to read comments of a provincial
conservation officer dismissing the role of development in the
upsurge in sightings and cougar-human interactions. Even the
mother of the toddler who experienced the cougar encounter in
Squamish agrees that rampant development is at the root of
increasing conflicts with the big cats.

Leading cougar researchers Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor have
written that habitat loss due to human development is the single
greatest threat to cougar conservation in North America. Cougars
require habitat for prey availability, hunting and feeding cover, as
well as nurseries and bedding sites.

In BC, continuing settlement encroachment on wildlife habitat
has lead to a predominantly Œshoot-first-ask-questions-later¹ method
of large carnivore management. Trophy hunting of cougars
continues unabated, without even the pretense of scientific
management. The government has also promoted lethal predator
control in connection with endangered Vancouver Island marmots
and mountain caribou recovery.

Predator control has negative effects on individual cougars,
cougar populations, kittens, prey, and entire ecosystems. Any
contemplation of cougar control should include the understanding
that ecosystems are extremely complex and that reliable scientific
data is generally limited.

The Paradox of Gulf Islands¹ Deer

On the Gulf Islands deer populations are unchecked by any natural
predator. Cougars occasionally appear on the islands, where they
might be ecologically welcomed, given the ubiquity of deer and lack of
predators. Instead, the appearance of a cougar typically results in the
swift removal of the animal.

This is unfortunate as the predator-prey imbalance in the Gulf
Islands is evident in the severely over-browsed understory of the
region¹s remaining forested lands. Sustained over-browsing by deer
alters the natural succession of vegetation in forested landscapes,
reduces plant cover and diversity, alters nutrient and carbon cycling‹
and is difficult to reverse. Over-browsing affect the growth and
survival of many herb, shrub, and tree species; modifying patterns of
relative abundance and vegetation dynamics; and redirecting the
forest structure. This has cascading effects on insects, birds, and other
mammals. Deer overpopulation also contributes to the spread of
Lyme disease.

Chris Genovali is the Executive Director of Raincoast Conservation.
Later this year, Raincoast Conservation will publish a report providing
a comprehensive assessment and framework for a cougar conservation
plan.