Trophy hunting and habitat loss are putting B.C.'s cougar population at risk and provincial policies do not adequately protect the big cats, says a new report by three scientists from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.
The study is being released today in anticipation of the province shortly publishing its first cougar management plan, which is under internal review.
For now, the province has no central planning document for cougars and relies on hunting regulations to safeguard populations, the study says.
Cougars are elusive and mysterious, meaning they are difficult to count, so the province has no firm numbers on which to base a hunt, said Chris Darimont, Raincoast science director and one of the report's authors.
"That means even the best management plan in the world for cougar hunting is fundamentally flawed," Darimont said.
"Also, most British Columbians are opposed to hunting animals except for sustenance. ... In other jurisdictions it has been found that even most hunters don't support hunting carnivores for sport," he said.
Natural Resource Operations Ministry spokesman David Currie said the cougar management plan has not yet gone through an internal ministry review and it is not known when it will be released.
So far, there has been no public input on the plan, Currie said.
"The cougar management plan addresses hunting and harvest management and looks at habitat requirements for cougars. It does not address the ethics of trophy hunting," he said.
Provincial figures show an average of 257 cougars are killed each year by hunters and an average of 50 a year are killed because of conflict with humans.
Trends indicate cougar populations are declining and Vancouver Island, where there was previously one of the more dense cougar populations in the province, is now assumed to have dipped from an estimate of 1,200 in 1979 to between 300 and 400 in 2001, according to unpublished provincial figures.
Cougar trophy hunts continue to be held on Vancouver Island. Hunts are usually held with hounds that tree the cougar. Radio collars then send a message to the waiting hunter, who shoots the cougar out of the tree.
"Conservation and management of B.C. cougars ought to consider commonly-held ethical values of British Columbians regarding biodiversity conservation and the welfare of individual cougars," said Corinna Wainwright, one of the authors of the report.
Report author Paul Paquet, Raincoast senior scientist and a mammalian carnivore expert, said research and education should form the basis of conservation plans. Instead, the province manages populations to meet pressure from lobby groups such as the trophy hunting industry and public safety concerns, he said.
"I don't think any species should be hunted if we don't know the numbers," he said.
"At present, provincial laws, regulations and practices for conserving and managing cougars fail to address the ... growing threats to survival that cougars now face," he said.
jlavoie@timescolonist.com
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Hunting+cougar+population+risk+story+video/4132140/story.html#ixzz1BVb18Z2V
The study is being released today in anticipation of the province shortly publishing its first cougar management plan, which is under internal review.
For now, the province has no central planning document for cougars and relies on hunting regulations to safeguard populations, the study says.
Cougars are elusive and mysterious, meaning they are difficult to count, so the province has no firm numbers on which to base a hunt, said Chris Darimont, Raincoast science director and one of the report's authors.
"That means even the best management plan in the world for cougar hunting is fundamentally flawed," Darimont said.
"Also, most British Columbians are opposed to hunting animals except for sustenance. ... In other jurisdictions it has been found that even most hunters don't support hunting carnivores for sport," he said.
Natural Resource Operations Ministry spokesman David Currie said the cougar management plan has not yet gone through an internal ministry review and it is not known when it will be released.
So far, there has been no public input on the plan, Currie said.
"The cougar management plan addresses hunting and harvest management and looks at habitat requirements for cougars. It does not address the ethics of trophy hunting," he said.
Provincial figures show an average of 257 cougars are killed each year by hunters and an average of 50 a year are killed because of conflict with humans.
Trends indicate cougar populations are declining and Vancouver Island, where there was previously one of the more dense cougar populations in the province, is now assumed to have dipped from an estimate of 1,200 in 1979 to between 300 and 400 in 2001, according to unpublished provincial figures.
Cougar trophy hunts continue to be held on Vancouver Island. Hunts are usually held with hounds that tree the cougar. Radio collars then send a message to the waiting hunter, who shoots the cougar out of the tree.
"Conservation and management of B.C. cougars ought to consider commonly-held ethical values of British Columbians regarding biodiversity conservation and the welfare of individual cougars," said Corinna Wainwright, one of the authors of the report.
Report author Paul Paquet, Raincoast senior scientist and a mammalian carnivore expert, said research and education should form the basis of conservation plans. Instead, the province manages populations to meet pressure from lobby groups such as the trophy hunting industry and public safety concerns, he said.
"I don't think any species should be hunted if we don't know the numbers," he said.
"At present, provincial laws, regulations and practices for conserving and managing cougars fail to address the ... growing threats to survival that cougars now face," he said.
jlavoie@timescolonist.com
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Hunting+cougar+population+risk+story+video/4132140/story.html#ixzz1BVb18Z2V
