The cougar question
Don MacLean talks about the feline mystery.
Cougars have been in the news recently with the announcement that three were seen near a home on Digby Neck. Cougar sightings are reported every few years from both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but the last animal which could be verified was seen in New Brunswick back in the 1930s. Initially I was skeptical about the presence of Eastern cougars, but over the years I have talked to a few people who have seen cougars. They spend more time in the woods than I do and I respect their opinion. They are convinced they saw a cougar. One person saw one in Cape Breton, another here in Pictou County and the third saw one chasing a deer in Guysborough County. They are not alone as hundreds of people have reported seeing a cougar to wildlife departments over the years. Unfortunately, very few of the reports have included a photograph and, for the ones which have, the picture is out of focus, it was too dark or there is nothing to provide a reference point to tell you how large the animal was. I have seen a few cougars in wildlife parks and they are certainly very impressive animals. A large male is over two metres long and can weigh up to one hundred kilograms. Brown as a deer, they are very strong and can leap impressive distances. Today the majority of cougars are found in western North America where their favourite prey is deer, but historically cougars ranged throughout eastern North America. Debate continues on how common they were in eastern Canada, but there are records of cougars in the area. The late Dr. Bruce Wright was a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Sackville, N.B., who made it his life’s work to document cougar sightings in eastern Canada. From 1948 to 1971 he documented 220 reports of sightings from New Brunswick and 26 from Nova Scotia. A few years ago Parks Canada put a lot of effort into the search for cougars here in Eastern Canada. They were part of a research network which involved biologists setting out scratching posts in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in an attempt to gain some insight on the presence of cougars. These posts were laced with hormones, known as pheromones, which are attractive to cougars. Any animals in the area should be attracted to the posts and, while scratching they deposit hair samples. The researchers collected 322 samples and of these 10 were confirmed as coming from cougars, eight in Quebec and two in New Brunswick. None were collected in Nova Scotia. What I found most interesting was that four samples had DNA of North American origin, four from Central or South America and two were of unknown origin. This suggests that some of the animals were probably former pets which were released or escaped. While the thought of someone letting a cougar loose seems implausible, back in 1960 an American business man apparently illegally released three cougars from Idaho in Newfoundland. The nine cougar sightings reported on Newfoundland since then are believed to be the progeny of those animals. The animals on Digby Neck were filmed and they certainly have long tails which would rule out bobcats or lynx. Tracks were also photographed and assessed by an expert who said they were too large to be from domestic house cats. So, whether the cougars people are seeing are former pets or cougars expanding their range from the west, there appears to be a few in the Maritimes. In any case I expect sightings will continue and the mystery surrounding this animal will only grow.