Woman finds cougar in backyard with dead deer
ANanaimo woman was surprised Tuesday to find a cougar in her yard standing over a freshly killed deer.
It happened in a rural area just south of Nanaimo. At about 8:30 a.m., Mandy Weisbrod went outside to investigate the cry of a raven.
Up against the fence, probably less than 10 metres away, she saw a large cougar beside the carcass of a deer, with its upper thigh torn open.
Seeing the big cat so close was both frightening and exciting.
As frightened as she was, it’s likely the large cat was just as frightened. It promptly left.
“That night I was certainly scared to go out to my trailer, but the conservation officer kind of put us at ease,” Weisbrod said. “If it had stood there growling at me, that would have been more frightening. But she definitely did not want to be
That night I was certainly scared to go out to my trailer
MANDY WEISBROD
anywhere near me. I feel very honoured to have seen it.”
They learned from the conservation officer the deer was probably killed at least two hours earlier, since rigor mortis had already set in, making the carcass rigid.
No one noticed the cougar there a half-hour earlier, when running their two children to school.
The cougar is a hot topic in the neighbourhood this week. “I didn’t want to go outside by myself really, but they say (cougars) don’t come out during the day that much,” said neighbour Shelley Tanner.
Another neighbour wonders about the risk of an attack on her two dogs.
Urban cougar attacks are unusual, but Weisbrod’s subdivision is rural.
“Once you cross the road there’s nothing but bush,” said conservation officer Stuart Bates.
The large deer carcass is sufficient to feed the cat for several days, so Bates removed it and hauled it into the bush for the animal to eat. He dragged it in a zigzag pattern so the cat could follow the scent.
In the rare case someone finds themselves facing a cougar in the wild, they should know to hold their ground and not move suddenly.
“Stare at it. Make yourself big. Talk in a big voice,” Bates said.