Cougar and young student come face to face on Sooke trail

We may “feel” like we are seeing more cougars in the region, but according to Sophia Cuthbert, manager of fish and wildlife programs at the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, it’s because urban sprawl continues to creep into more corners of Vancouver Island.  

It was more than just “a feeling” for 12-year-old Ginevra Servant, who, last Friday had a close encounter with a cougar while she was walking near SEAPARC on her way to Journey Middle School on Throup Road. The trail, wooded on either side, backs onto DeMamiel Creek Park and connects to wildlife corridors that reach northward into Sooke Potholes Regional Park and westward into Otter Point Park and beyond. 

According to the report, A Review of Cougar Biology and Management in British Columbia, the province has one of the largest, most intact cougar populations in Canada. Though their numbers have not consistently been tracked, its authors say there are between 800 and 1,100 on the Island alone. Predators like cougars are an integral part of regional ecosystems and the Westshore represents one of their many primary habitats. The Westshore is also one of the fastest growing, from the perspective of human population and development and human and animal populations are colliding more often.

“Bear Mountain is a good example of this, where urban development has taken place over important intact wildlife habitat. These developments, including in Sooke, will often cross over existing active wildlife corridors,” Cuthbert said in an interview with The Westshore.

Siobhan Darlington, one of the authors of the biology review report said “cougar-human encounters are very rare given they have a fear of humans and will not risk injury to themselves. Knowing how to act in the event of an encounter such as not turning your back and standing your ground will further help keep you safe, and another good option is to learn how to use and safely carry bear spray to protect yourself from cougars and other wildlife in the event of an encounter.” 

Servant, who did not move and bravely stood her ground, did precisely the right thing. 

While cougar attacks on humans have been increasing in BC as development and incursions into habitat increase, such occurrences remain rare—there have been eight since 1996. The same is not true for livestock. 

John Buchanan, a farmer in Metchosin whose business has been greatly impacted by cougar attacks told The Westshore, “From a human interaction point of view, we do have increasing concerns as cougars and bears become more accustomed to people, and less and less fearful.” He raises about 600 lambs at Parry Bay Sheep Farm each year for consumption in restaurants across the CRD.

Buchanan said as a child he had free run of the forest around his family’s farmstead but would be “very concerned about letting my grandchildren do the same.” Like Servant, he’s had his own close encounters. Once, when he followed a female cougar who had taken one of his lambs he said, “she just raised her head and looked at me, and I backed away out of sight. I know conservation officers prioritize human safety issues and speak often about the best ways to be safe.”

Wildlife advocates like Cuthbert challenge whether more frequent sightings and interactions like Servant’s and Buchanan’s mean there are more cougars. That impression, she says, may be owing to the fact people are living in areas that bump up against wildlife habitats, but they also have more ways to capture and report on these interactions than they did in the past. Instagram and Facebook posts in communities in the Westshore now regularly include wildlife sightings of cougars and bears. 

“Check out the Bear Mountain or Highlands Facebook pages and you'll see photos and location posts about large predators frequently. Security/ring cameras linked to computers and smartphones also catch photos and video of large predators at night, when they are most active,” said Cuthbert. Her concern is that because the greater public does not have easy access to up-to-date cougar population densities, and changes over time, they don’t have a reliable sense of cougar population density. There are partnering organizations working to fix that. 

The Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance and the University of Victoria have teamed up, with funding from the CRD, to launch the Sooke Hills Wilderness Project. They have set up a number of cameras, through their initiative, to track wildlife movement through the park. The idea is to use the data collected through the cameras to arrive at management solutions for authorized trails and the park’s shared human-wildlife landscape. The project acknowledges that disturbances happen both ways. 

According to Nitya Harris, a director with the Coexisting with Carnivores Alliance, hikers can impact wildlife up to one kilometre away, and mountain bikers can have an impact up to three kilometres away. Both animals and humans need to be safe. 

When they are not, the Conservation Officer Service will respond to significant wildlife sightings and to livestock or pet attacks, though its website is clear—their services are not about population control. “Wildlife control actions are not meant to impact or reduce cougar populations but are responses to individual or repeat incidents when cougars pose a threat to public safety or represent losses of pets or livestock.” In May last year, BC Conservation Officer Service (COS) had to euthanize six animals they believed to be a threat to humans and their livestock in Sooke. 

Additional support for farmers who have come under attack from cougars has also come from the BC Cattlemen Association Livestock Protection Program (LPP). Funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, the program helps prevent and mitigate impacts from wildlife to cattle and sheep. Professional hunters with trained dogs hired by the association are regularly used in predator management protocols to remove individual cougars that have come into conflict with people or livestock. Farmers in the Westshore can make compensatory claims through this program for lost livestock.

To stave off predators, the association recommends installing motion triggered night lighting, fencing and using appropriate breeds of livestock guardian dogs when the livestock are in pens or groups that the dogs are able to patrol. Buchanan said of a time when more dogs roamed free, “they used to serve as a massive deterrent because they would bug the cougars and were extremely protective of their territory.” Farm dogs are more frequently leashed than they once were. 

If you are walking or hiking alone or in a group and you have an encounter with a cougar, Darlington says “it's important not to turn your back and run. Stand your ground, make yourself look big, talk loudly, and if you can, grab sticks or rocks to throw towards the cougar as that will usually make them run away from you.”

Westshore residents who have an encounter like Servant’s or have animals on their property being threatened or that have been killed by a cougar are encouraged to call the Conservation Officer Service at 1-877-952-RAPP (7277) or their local RCMP at 250-642-5241.