Cougar seen on Daniel Way
A cougar crossed in front of my car on Daniel Way on Saturday morning. Handsome with blackish grey fur. This was an adult with round head and a tail, about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long, healthy-looking and presumably quite happy on a diet of venison and rabbits and quail. I reported the sighting. The cougar was the size of a 2 to 3 year old German Shepherd, but ran like a cat and had the typical tail.
This report is from a friend of ours, and he saw that cat just two days ago.
Filed in Gabriola Island,wildlife 21 Comments so far
deb on 23 Jan 2012 at 10:11 pm #
okay, so finally a real sighting of the mythical gabriolan cougar…I always wonder how many we have at any given time…and I wonder if they would bother dogs with soo many deer on this island…I hope not!
Gabriolan on 23 Jan 2012 at 10:47 pm #
deb, this is not the first time in recent years that a cougar has been seen on Gabriola. See the Cougar on Gabriola post from 2009, for example.
I hope cougars would rather eat deer than humans or dogs.
pericat on 24 Jan 2012 at 12:39 am #
*snore* *snrk* Wha-? Cougar?! I’m awake now. Damn, I was just dreaming of cougars the other day. They had green bellies.
And I’m not so sure that isn’t some flavour of TMI.
Bronka on 24 Jan 2012 at 11:16 am #
I thought cougars had tawny, tan coats. Indeed, they do. Their relatives, the pumas in the Central and South American jungles, are black and glossy. I really don’t think this was a cougar sighting. Wrong colour!
Gabriolan on 24 Jan 2012 at 11:41 am #
Bronka – The Cougar in British Columbia page on the BC Ministry of Environment’s site says:
So it seems there is some variation in colour.
deb on 25 Jan 2012 at 6:31 pm #
I have no doubt there probably is a cougar or two here on gabe…but there are alot of disbelievers…and they are supposedly very shy creatures who only chase humans or dogs when starving…and there is no way they are starving on this island:)
though I remember reading a story in the states where one jumped thru the window and grabbed the family lab…later the family were asked if the authorities could use the lab carcass as bait. I thought that was very sad! But I did pull up this encounter. http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-mountain-lion-attack-030510,0,6741025.story
I think mountain lion and cougar are the same creature.
Mats on 26 Jan 2012 at 12:34 am #
Indeed there has been cougar sightings on Gabriola in the last few years. If you go to the growls.ca website and look at their annual reports (hidden in the “about” section) you will see there are several entries for almost every year. Including one cougar living in a cedar barn (!!) that was killed by a conservation officer back in 2009.
Regarding the color, I don’t know about cougars in BC, but cougars in general have a range of colors that includes a dark gray variety. According to wikipedia anyway.
PS. the black ones in the South-American jungles are Jaguars, puma (and mountain lion) is just another name for cougar.
deb on 26 Jan 2012 at 9:47 am #
Apparently a cougar was sighted in the dole road area…so dog walkers be watchful!
Mats on 26 Jan 2012 at 12:48 pm #
@deb
When did this happen, could you give some more info? That’s not too far from my home.
Anyway, I think cougars roam large areas every day, so it could be on the other side of the island the next day. That could very well be the same cougar seen at Daniel Way.
deb on 26 Jan 2012 at 9:38 pm #
Hi Mats
it happened a few weeks ago not sure who started the rumour…this is third hand and I believe the dole road acreages have had cougar sightings over quite a few years. I know that my one neighbour swears he saw one behind his house on pat burns, 2 yrs ago…and about 5 years ago …there were a lot of sudden deer carcasses ( but this is very hard to verify what killed and began eating as the ravens and eagles finish a deer carcass within days)
last year the landowner at the corner of dole and conville said she saw a cougar near the road…but again its hard to verify any truth.
My house and land attach up to dole road acreages which span all the way to the golf course ( which also has had cougar sightings)
anyhow in my 12 years…I have spent almost every day of it walking one or two times in the back of dole and never sighted a cougar…and I now have two dogs, so I wont be likely too any time soon. I also know that many dogs travel this area so the cougar will probably hunt at night to avoid that kind of traffic ( if it exists)
hope that helps…one thing on our side on gabe is the cougar(s) are well fed and so therefore not likely to hunt pets or threaten humans.
cher on 27 Jan 2012 at 7:59 am #
If there have been true cougar sightings why haven’t they been formally reported
and why have there never been postings by the RCMP to warn the population?
deb on 27 Jan 2012 at 12:50 pm #
hi cher…I dont think they can be verified…thats why I call them hypothetical sightings. I wish that someone would take a pic and post it on fb or in the papers:)
Gabriolan on 27 Jan 2012 at 1:05 pm #
cher – Look at the quoted text above. The guy who wrote this account said I spoke to this man (a friend of ours) on Monday, and he mentioned that he had reported the cougar to the RCMP. They told him to talk to the Conservation Officer Service, so he reported to them as well.
As for why the RCMP don’t warn Gabriolans when they hear of a cougar on the island, you’ll have to ask them. My guess would be that there are likely to be cougars on Gabriola quite regularly, so no big deal from their point of view. And since a cougar can move from one end of the island to the other quite quickly – or off the island altogether – it would be difficult to issue any sort of timely warning.
If the RCMP hear about a cougar on Tuesday afternoon, what are they going to do? Put a notice in one of the Gabriola papers for the following Monday? The cougar might have left the island altogether by then.
Mimi on 28 Jan 2012 at 9:54 pm #
This same rumour has been circulating since I was a child. It was said they swam over from Mudge. Still haven’t seen one on the island and hope I never do. I don’t think anyone has ever gotten a picture of one.
Sal on 29 Jan 2012 at 9:49 am #
My goodness people relax! The sky isn’t falling, a cougar has been seen. I would love to see a cougar. I worked in the bush for years and never saw one, although some of my friends did. And nobody got eaten either!
The media jumps all over things like cougar or bear attacks, yet one is far more likely to die in a car accident, or to be attacked by a human predator. Cheers.
pericat on 30 Jan 2012 at 11:04 am #
Why should we ‘relax’? We’re having fun. Also, if faced with an unhappy or cornered cougar, I’d say I’m much more likely to regret the encounter than to die in a car accident in the next five minutes, so that stat is out the window.
Anyway, whether or not it’s sky-falling equivalence, a cougar sighting is exciting and fun to talk about. Your saying to relax and so forth just made it less fun. I’m sure you didn’t intend that, but that’s the usual result of poo-pooing others’ interests.
Sal on 30 Jan 2012 at 8:25 pm #
Pericat, I said “relax” because it was sounding to me like some people were getting a little stressed out: “Why have there never been postings by the RCMP to warn the population?” “Still haven’t seen one on the island and hope I never do.” Sorry if I sounded like a stick in the mud, but I was thinking that y’all were stuck deep in the mud.
Personally, I would LOVE to see a cougar, and am not worried in the least about it.
pericat on 30 Jan 2012 at 10:04 pm #
I can think of several reasons for not wanting to see a cougar; if one keeps chickens, for example, or gets about with a cane, or walks dogs – small dogs in particular, but even large dogs could escalate tension if the cougar is surprised. And if a cougar, or more than one cougar, is seen multiple times, eventually someone is going to go after it with a gun. I’d just as soon that not happen.
I have seen a cougar, years ago. It was in the wee hours of the morning, and it was way unhappy about being seen. There wasn’t fifteen feet between us. It left the way it got there – over the fence behind it, which surely beat the alternative, in my opinion. If I ever see another, I hope there’s a good deal more air between us and it sees me first.
Sal on 31 Jan 2012 at 9:06 am #
Pericat, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree– peacefully. I have chickens– lots of ‘em- and have a dog. Would still love to see a cougar.
You have just reinforced my point: You saw a cougar and came away… unscathed. Treasure the memory. Very few people get to see such a majestic animal in the wild. And the sad fact is that, yeah, when several sightings occur someone will be dispatched to do away with it because of an irrational fear that we can’t live in harmony and it will kill us. Sure, it happens–rarely– but like I said earlier there are more rational fears to ponder if you have a need to (car accidents, etc.)
Yes, it is exciting and fun to talk about though.Hopefully the cougar will stick around for a while and thin out some of the deer.
jo on 13 Feb 2012 at 11:41 am #
i didn’t know we had a local blog….awesome!
Gabriolan on 13 Feb 2012 at 2:54 pm #
Welcome, jo! There is indeed a Gabriola blog. :-)
There are some other Gabriola blogs, too – perhaps you’ll find a few that you like.