Attack a stark reminder for Alberta family

When Laura Frost first read about a person being killed by a cougar recently in Washington state, she was immediately reminded that the big cats can be anywhere.

“We need to take it a lot more seriously than a lot of people do,” said Frost, a professor emeritus in the biological sciences department at the University of Alberta. “This was a 100-pound cougar that attacked one person and killed another.

“Two people couldn’t defend themselves against a hungry, thin cougar — that’s how strong they are.”

Frost and her husband, Ed, know all too well about how important it is to be safe in the wilderness.

Their daughter, Frances, was killed by a cougar in Banff National Park in January 2001.

Since then, there have only been three recorded cougar deaths in North America — including the one in Washington state May 19.

Isaac Sederbaum, 31, was mountain biking with friend S.J. Brooks, 32, on logging roads near North Bend, in the Cascade Mountain foothills east of Seattle, when the cougar started following them.

They tried to scare it off and even hit it with a bike, but it returned, injuring Sederbaum and killing Brooks.

In the last 100 years in North America, there have been about 25 fatal cougar attacks, said the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Another 95 people have been attacked and survived. More attacks have been reported in the western United States and Canada over the past 20 years than in the previous 80.

Meghan Beale, a graduate student who’s researching cougars at the University of Alberta, said that’s because people are spending more time in cougar country.

“We, as humans, are sprawling into areas ... that now overlap the native ranges of cougars,” she said.

That can lead to more conflict, said Beale.

Colleen Cassady St.clair, an expert in human-wildlife conflict, added that it’s believed there are also more cougars.

Still, she said cougar attacks are extremely rare.