BANFF – Cougars continue to kill elk and deer on the outskirts of Banff.
Parks Canada said there have now been six kills in the last month, and because of the locations, they’ve had to remove four of those carcasses for public safety reasons.
Wildlife experts said they make a decision on a case-by-case basis in an attempt to balance safety of people with allowing the predator to take advantage of its kill.
Dan Ralfa, human-wildlife conflict specialist for Banff National Park, said the cougars work hard to get their meal.
“Just because we’ve taken four of the six kills in the last five weeks doesn’t mean we’ll continue to do that,” he said.
“I think if it happens again, we’d look really hard at alternatives to just removing the carcass, whether that means dragging it to a more secure location and closing off an area and monitoring it.”
Cougars use wildlife corridors around Banff year-round, but increased cougar activity, in part, is being attributed to the concentration of elk and deer in the valley bottom around town in winter.
They are efficient hunters. Solitary and secretive, cougars can be active any time of day, but most often hunt at dusk, night and dawn.
Rafla said the cougars are behaving naturally, noting it appears to be a mother cat and her offspring, as well as a solitary cougar hunting in the area.
“The cougars are killing under the cover of darkness and coming back under the cover of darkness,” he said.
On Jan. 28, the mother cougar and her offspring killed a mule deer off St. Julien Road, in a forested backyard.
A couple of days later, Parks Canada received a report of an elk in distress on Tunnel Mountain Road near The Banff Centre.
Parks staff went to check into the report and found the elk laying down. With no obvious sign of injury, they left the animal and planned to check again later.
“We followed up again first thing in the morning and it had been killed by a cougar,” said Rafla, noting a necropsy had revealed the elk had a broken leg before the big cat killed it.
“Obviously cougars are still hunting in that general area and came across a weakened animal.”
Parks Canada had the chance to leave a young elk killed by a cougar near Cascade Ponds on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway away from the busy townsite.
“We more or less dragged it and left it in a secured area with a closure,” said Rafla.
Tracking in the area, as well as remote cameras, shows there’s been a lot of cougar activity in the Tunnel Mountain area down towards the golf course.
“The golf course is part of a wildlife corridor, which we close off in winter, and obviously animals are taking advantage of it,” said Rafla.
To avoid a cougar encounter, Parks Canada advises people to travel in groups and keep everyone together; be especially cautious when travelling at dawn and dusk; travel slowly if cycling or jogging; make noise to alert a cougar to your presence; carry bear spray in an easily accessible location and know how to use it; keep your dog on leash at all times, and leave the area if you see or smell a dead animal.
Parks also asks that people report any cougar sightings immediately. The number to call is 403-762-1470.
