Ontario Cougars!

vviking said:
They say it takes a lot of tracks to make a decent soup, .... but cougar tracks are unlike any other predator's that I've seen in my time. Recently, a good clear set of fresh prints I found, in firm deep snow, and well researched afterwards to confirm, leaves me convinced that this animal roams the Collingwood/Blue Mountains/Meaford/Owen Sound area of central Ont..
Local lore has it that 3 animals were released by "authorities" some few years ago. I have been unable to personally confirm this, however, a local trusted co-worker, living rural, swears to have layed eyes on, a few times, in broad daylight, a mature cougar working the fencerow across from his remote home.
Deer kills, surrounded with tracks in the mud, were discovered 2 years ago by my nephew(a level-headed fellow) out back of Senic Caves on top of Blue Mountain.

Other's claim to have heard the hair raising scream's.

Seems to me the chances are better than even that ... yup, ... they are around.
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Darn right eh? Its about time the MNR admitted theres cougars in ONT. I've seen so many threads about 'oh I saw a coug in Ont' etc. The git dang cats were here before, then we killed em off and now there back! I don't know why its that hard for the MNR to admit that maybe, god forbid, they migrated here from out west or something! I'm glad theres some special report finally saying their here!
 
From reliable sources within the MNR several years ago 3 mating pairs of cougars were released in Ontario. 1-Collingwood, 2-Midland (Wyemarsh Wildlife Centre Property), 3- Horseshoe Valley ski resort area. One female at the time of release was known to be pregnant.

I have two reliable friends who have sighted the Wye Marsh cougars on two occassion during the day, in winter with nice fresh footy prints in the snow on the cross country ski trails.

Apparently this was all in aid of helping control the wild turkeys, the MNR also released alot of Fishers for the same reason.

We see many Fishers in the Southern Georgian Bay region now and far less turkeys. I had a resident population of around two doz turkeys in my back 40 for many years. Now I see the very odd one. But I do have resident fishers, and coyotes and since my property is only 2 miles from the Wyemarsh as the crow flies I probably get the odd visitation from the cougar family.

You just got to love all those knowledgable wildlife bioligist folks at the MNR.
 
madtrapper143 said:
I trapped for over 25 years all over Ontario. (south and north) I never crossed a track or scat or a deer kill covered. I have reviewed local sightings closely by talking with the witness. These facts ALWAYS emerge #1: it was dark #2: they were alone #3: during the time of year when there was no snow for tracking #4: over elaborate tales of cat behaviour including stretching and slinking #5: had yellow eyes #6: (no offence) but 90% of people who saw a cougar were female? I feel that if any legitimate sightings exist they were of escaped "pets" or the person just honestly thought they seen a cougar. Just my two cents bring on the flame.

regards, Darryl
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after we watched one jump across the trail ahead of us, my buddy and i stopped right away and my buddy asked if i saw the cougar before i had a chance to say anything. after literally 2 hours of searching we failed to find a single track in the relatively dry bush.

ive been venturing into the bush for about 18 years (since i was 8) and there was no possible way to mistake what that animal was. my buddy isnt into hunting or anything and couldnt give a rats ass if they're around, but seeing as it was a 100% clear view of the animal and we could have hit it with a stone, even he knew what it was.

and no, i dont believe in aliens, big foot, or old nessy
 
I seen one, outside of Brantford Ontario, 3 minutes from my house.
I was driving down a partially abandoned road to an old rifle range to sight in my new .17 HMR, it was about 8 in the morning. As I rounded a bend the cougar jumped from the riverbank (Nith), hit the road once in front of me and it's next contact with the ground was in the bush, out of sight. This happened in good light, 10 yards in front of me.
I didn't give it much thought, I was on a mission with a new rifle. About 3 in the afternoon I couldn't stop running it through my head so I called the MNR, the gal on the phone was as sceptical as the majority of posts here. After several questions she asked me one that seemed to trigger a bit of interest, and she put me through to the Biologist, Pud Hunter. I learned a lot that day and Pud and I still speak on a fairly regular basis.
I don't think there are many out there, or we would be seeing pictures on trail cams, but I know without doubt that there is at least one.
 
canadian hunter312 said:
after we watched one jump across the trail ahead of us, my buddy and i stopped right away and my buddy asked if i saw the cougar before i had a chance to say anything. after literally 2 hours of searching we failed to find a single track in the relatively dry bush.

ive been venturing into the bush for about 18 years (since i was 8) and there was no possible way to mistake what that animal was. my buddy isnt into hunting or anything and couldnt give a rats ass if they're around, but seeing as it was a 100% clear view of the animal and we could have hit it with a stone, even he knew what it was.

and no, i dont believe in aliens, big foot, or old nessy
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And yet there is more documented proof that they exist, than a cougar in Ontario!:D
 
skypilot said:
I have found tracks on my place near Boulter and never said much as I was a doubter. Then my wife and her sister were frighten by one cutting their trail and leaving huge tracks in the snow near our remote home.

Soon there were numerous sightings around the area by locals. Many elk in the area also.

I thought the MNR had already confessed to re introducing them.
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I was just gonna post that there had been local news sightings for a number of yrs now in the Bancroft Times, & from some pretty reliable people.
I saw something last summer here, outside Combermere that I can't absolutely confirm what it was, but I'm pretty damm sure! As I sped around a corner in my vehicle I saw the back 1/2 of a tawny coloured animal jump into the brush along the road. It was about 20"-24" tall to it's back with it's long slender tail curved in an almost perfect arc back towards it's rump as it was landing in the brush.
I heard Thursdays Ottawa Citizen also had a article with MNR confirming exsistance of Cougars in Eastern Ont.
 
Photo taken in North bay... later confirmed by the ministry to be legitimate and a cougar......

1829613.dat
 
Last winter I worked with a fellow who was trapping deer in Marlborough Forest near ottawa in order to gather information to write his doctoral thesis on hunter/deer relations. He was working in conjunction with the MNR and after a while I asked him what he thought about cougars in Ontario.

It turns out another person he knew wrote a paper on cougars in ontario and had put out large numbers of "DNA" traps. Essentially a bait with strands of barb wire surrounding it, similar to what they used to do for black bears. The fellow would then collect any fur samples that were found caught in the wire. He on several occasions found "cougar" hair and after DNA analysis it was found that the DNA was similar to South american cougars or pumas and did not compare well with the North American DNA. So there are cougars here, they were just at some time in captivity.

Where would the MNR get money to release cougars? They can't work overtime and hold bake sales to buy fuel for their pickups?Last year the cougars were supposed to have been released in Luther Marsh to control the deer. I think MNR releases are a load of cow cookies.
 
Where are the pictures of these Ontario Cougars, seems hundreds of people are seeing them, almost all of us have cameras now... and there are trail camms ALL over Ontario. I believe there may be an isolated few Cougars in Ontario- if so, good! However, I do not believe even 1% of these sightings everyone keeps making. I own land on the edge of the Rockies, prime cougar habitat with outfitters hunting the area, and I've seen ONE cougar in my life and that was a kilometer away on the opposing ridge. The one thing we do see is plenty of (genuine) tracks. Cougars don't traverse ground without leaving a mark, and their tracks are undeniably big cat. How fifty different guys from Ontario have seen them on this forum (it seems) when supposedly there's maybe an unbelievably rare budding population is beyond me. Even in the densest Cougar areas in Canada you can go years without ever even seeing one and people are having them jump in front of their truck at 10 yards apparently in Ontario.
 
Turkeyslayer 1300 said:
Last winter I worked with a fellow who was trapping deer in Marlborough Forest near ottawa in order to gather information to write his doctoral thesis on hunter/deer relations. He was working in conjunction with the MNR and after a while I asked him what he thought about cougars in Ontario.

It turns out another person he knew wrote a paper on cougars in ontario and had put out large numbers of "DNA" traps. Essentially a bait with strands of barb wire surrounding it, similar to what they used to do for black bears. The fellow would then collect any fur samples that were found caught in the wire. He on several occasions found "cougar" hair and after DNA analysis it was found that the DNA was similar to South american cougars or pumas and did not compare well with the North American DNA. So there are cougars here, they were just at some time in captivity.

Where would the MNR get money to release cougars? They can't work overtime and hold bake sales to buy fuel for their pickups?Last year the cougars were supposed to have been released in Luther Marsh to control the deer. I think MNR releases are a load of cow cookies.
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The MNR's trail camera photos may be posted in this thread in reply, but there is NO way they'd be short sighted enough to set hair snag traps with bait, without an $80 trail camera watching it. Where are the trail cam photos of Ontario Cougars? :redface: I see Brad's photo in the article (without knowing the context that could easily be a captive photo), that's the first real one I've seen, and I look forward to seeing others. Like I mentioned, I believe a few are there, I don't believe all the sightings being reported here.
 
Ardent said:
The MNR's trail camera photos may be posted in this thread in reply, but there is NO way they'd be short sighted enough to set hair snag traps with bait, without an $80 trail camera watching it. Where are the trail cam photos of Ontario Cougars? :redface: I see Brad's photo in the article (without knowing the context that could easily be a captive photo), that's the first real one I've seen, and I look forward to seeing others. Like I mentioned, I believe a few are there, I don't believe all the sightings being reported here.
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What about the pic and article I posted ardent?... And the fact that mnr themselves confirms the existance of cougars in ontario?... There arte literally hundreds of pictures that surface each year which the ministry simply pushes aside by saying "we can't confirm it's a cougar"...

I can only recall maybe 3 cgn'rs saying they saw a cougar in ontario... Are the claims here really that prevalent?
 
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