Cougars are beautiful, wild, and dangerous – and many Bow Valley residents consider themselves fortunate to live in such close proximity to these elusive and rare animals.
The big cats strike fear and anxiety in many people because of their elusiveness and ambush hunting style, yet the 2001 death of Frances Frost while cross-country skiing near Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park is the only recorded human death in Alberta’s history.
Parks Canada wildlife officials say people should not live in fear of the animals, but rather take the necessary precautions to try to avoid a cougar encounter, such as keeping eyes open for tracks, poop and kill sites – and keeping dogs on leash.
“When I travel throughout the Rockies I frequently find cougar tracks, but I rarely see the cougars. I’ve seen about half a dozen cougars in my lifetime,” said Jesse Whittington, a wildlife biologist in Banff National Park.
“I am always struck by the beauty, power and grace of cougars. With each sighting, I give the cougars the space and respect they need and I just enjoyed watching them from a distance. I truly hope I get to see more cougars – just not in town.”
Parks Canada has been keeping a close eye on cougar activity through weekly snow tracking near Banff every winter since 1993, as well as checking images on remote cameras and monitoring wildlife underpasses and overpasses on the Trans-Canada Highway.
Previous research has shown the number of cougars in the Bow Valley varies over time, but over the past decade, there has been anywhere between five and 10 individuals roaming the area.
According to Parks Canada, cougar activity over the winter of 2012–13 was slightly above the long-term average for cougar use of wildlife corridors, while reported sightings by members of the public and use of highway crossing structures was below or near average.
Saundi Norris, a resource conservation specialist for Banff National Park, said cougar activity around Banff has peaked at different periods over the past 20 years, with research showing it peaked in the winters of 2000–01, 2008–09 and again last winter.
She said Parks expects to see similar levels of cougar activity again this winter, because several cougar families, including females with young, are using the area as part of their home range.
“It would be fair to say we could possibility see more activity this year as young cougars start to disperse,” she said, noting cougars typically leave their mother between the ages of 13 and 24 months.
“We could have more cougars travelling independently and possibility staying in the home range of their mothers. This tends to lead to higher tendency for incursions into the townsite.”
Cougars are elusive and solitary animals and typically will try to avoid any confrontation with people, but they can prove dangerous if surprised, cornered, feeding on a kill, or accompanied by kittens.
Last year, winter snow tracking and remote cameras showed there were at least three family groups and one lone male cougar regularly using the wildlife corridors around the Banff townsite.
A female with one sub-adult in tow regularly travelled in the Norquay-Cascade corridor on the north side of the highway, while a female with three young kittens and another female with one sub-adult were all using the Sulphur corridor.
“The Sulphur corridor tends to be one of the higher use corridors, with the most frequent sightings,” said Norris. “At one point, we had a deer kill that both family groups were feeding on.”
For the first time, Norris said, Parks Canada last winter documented linked movement of cougars from the Sulphur Mountain corridor, across the Spray River and onto the Banff Springs golf course.
“Cougars are definitely using those corridors to get around the townsite,” she said.
During the snow tracking of transects near Banff each winter, trackers who are out at least once a week from December to March detected cougar tracks on average 17 per cent of the time, from a low of four per cent to a high of 29 per cent, over 20 years.
In winter 2012–13, cougars were detected 24 per cent of the time.
In 2012, about 13 per cent of 140 remote cameras in Banff National Park picked up cougar activity. Cougars passed by the cameras at various times of the day, bust mostly at dusk, dawn and evening hours.
On average, the cats cross highway overpasses and overpasses 130 times a year, but in the past two years, there’s been an average of 55 crossings a year. In some years, there’s been up to 400 crossings.
Parks is also right at its long-term average of 36 cougar sightings per year, with 32 in 2012. The data for 2013 is not yet available. Most of the sightings never amount to a dangerous encounter, though.
That said, Banff’s only recorded fatality was of Frost in January, 2001. That same year, there was elevated cougar activity, involving the stalking of a local woman out walking her dog in the Middle Springs neighbourhood.
Last May, Parks Canada closed off a large area near the townsite when a man reported fighting a cougar off with his skateboard. He miraculously escaped without a scratch on him. Rumours circulated, though, that the man who said he was attacked made the whole story up.
Norris said Parks Canada takes all reports of cougar sightings very seriously, and asks people to report any cougar sightings or kill sites.
“We do pay very close attention to any cougar sightings, and are also very diligent in investigating any cougar kill sites near Banff and around high human use areas,” she said.
Whittington said density and distribution of cougars depends primarily on deer, with cougars killing a prey species on average once every 10 days.
Cougars, he said, prey on deer about 75 per cent of the time, but they will also eat elk, bighorn sheep and moose. Banff historically did not have white-tail deer, but they started showing up in the park about 30 years ago, he said.
“They’re expanding their range across North America and that’s a draw for cougars,” said Whittington.
Whittington said wolves also have a strong effect on cougars, with wolves actually being the dominant predator.
“They’re like cats and dogs – they do not like each other,” he said. “They chase cougars off their kill sites, they usurp their prey and they sometimes kill cougars. Cougars rarely return to their prey after encountering wolves.”
Whittington said he remembers tracking a pack of six wolves up a valley when suddenly the pack took a 90-degree turn, and headed up to the top of a ridge.
“They chased down and killed a six-month old cougar kitten,” he said. “Once it was dead, they simply left it and continued up the valley.”
One of the best ways to reduce habituation of cougars and reduce the likelihood of a dangerous encounter is by keeping dogs on a leash at all times, as pets have been known to attract the interest of cougars.
Norris said people generally understand the risks of off-leash dogs attracting wildlife, which could end with a dead or injured pet, but she said not everyone realizes that even if there is no contact, cougars may still be aware of their presence.
“These forays pets are having are contributing to habituation. Even if they don’t have an encounter, over time, cougars in particular, become so used to seeing dogs that they might start hunting,” she said. “That doesn’t end well.”
