Cougar Sighting in Orangeville Ontario

I wonder why so many people say that it cant be cougars, this used to be part of their natural habitat.As far as not seeing them goes, if there is not a very big population, you just wont see them very often.I just spent the last 2 years in Drayton Valley, Alberta on a Rig, and one day, while tripping pipe , we saw a cougar about 200 yards away right from the rig floor! All of the guys I worked with were all local, the driller has been a huning guide for 20 years in Alberta, to a man, this is the first time any of them ever saw a cougar, and that particular area has known high population of cougars. Every year, there are a couple of big ones taken by hunters, but unless you're out with the dogs looking for them, you almost never see them!
 
I heard of a cougar sighting this past Tuesday, August 19 near Raleigh Lake road (btwn Dryden and Ignace) at about 3 in the afternoon .
A truck driver noticing a deer sized/colored animal crossing the road in front of him , slowed down to get a better look at the animal which was definitely catlike in appearance and gait .The animal just stood there in the ditch watching as the truck passed about 25 yds. away.
The truck driver said that the animal had a very long tail .
 
I live about 15 min's north or O'ville. There's a cougar, and 2 cubs in my "back 40"... Some of the locals on their ATV's have seen her. I've seen her itty bitty footprints. :runaway:

I don't work on the back of my property anymore without the shotgun in arms reach....

It's been a weird summer for wildlife. Had a coyote come to within about 100 yards of me and the dogs the other day as well. Just stood and was watching us... Me.. and 5 Rottweilers... Good thing the dogs didn't see it... I'd have a heck of a vet bill......
 
My mother in law saw one in there front yard 100 yards from the house. It walked across a cut hay field for 200 yards following a deer trail. She had plenty of time to be sure of what she was watching. She sees deer every day, I don't think she was mistaken. Their long curled tail is unmistakable.
 
I also live right on this road, and that public school with the cougar just so happened to be my public school that I was attending at the time. Funny how small this world is. Meanwhile, her kitty kitty kitty....
 
I think the argument needs to transition from, whether or not there are any cougars in Ontario? to are they wild or captives that have been released? I imagine a lot of the sightings are bogus, but there is enough evidence to conclude that there are some cougars in the province, how they got there should be the question. I think its pretty safe to assume that the MNR did not release them, its possible they are wild migrants, but I would tend to believe they have been released by private owners or exotic animal collectors.

Patrick
 
I heard of a local farmer that had a bull killed last week by, he thought, wolves .
When the MNR came out to investigate they concluded that the bull was killed by a cougar .
I'll see if I can find any substantiation to this rumor.
 
I would say there are cougars in Ontario just not many. As far as the MNR goes...who knows. They have been involved in releasing all kinds of species. They were involved in reintroducing Turkeys to some areas. Why not Cougars? It is usually a group of a few people that take on projects like that so it might have been doable to keep it quiet. Maybe it was kept quiet as a liability thing. I'm not saying it was them I just wouldn't rule it out.
 
A buddy of mine live west of London, off the 401 in the melborne area. He has a 50 acre peice of land there, out in rurals. He said he and his daughter have seen a cougar on their property.
There have been rumours going around for a while about them or it being there in that area. This is the first year they have actually seen one, or it.
 
A number of cougars have been sighted on Manitoulin over the last few years. There was even a photo of one in the Manitoulin Expositor. MNR has not been able to meet the burden of proof they require to verify cougar sightings. Some of the people who have reported them are very reputable. It makes sense to me because we have lots of deer. As far as the "MNR Release" goes, I put that in the same "rural legend" category as the one that the MNR releases bear trapped in the Sudbury area here. The MNR state they haul trapped bears north to remote areas. I don't think they would want the Sh**storm it would cause if it could ever be proved they released bears here.
 
shimmer said:
For the life of me I can't remember what magazine it was, but last year it had an article about cougars in Ontario. There has been proof that they are in On (biologist have confirmed)............I'm going to have to go look to see if I can find the article, it was very interesting. And back the question of "where did they come from".........cougars, pumas, mountain lions or whatever you want to call them roamed across all of North America at one point in time and I'm sure that they are gradually making their way back
Click to expand...

shimmer said:
I found the article that I was looking for. It was in Canadian Geographic (Nov/Dec '07 issue. "The scat proves the cat’s back. Confirmation came in May, but the story started in March 2004, when Anne Yagi, a biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, was inspecting a carnivore kill site in the Wainfleet Bog, near Port Colborne, Ont. She was convinced it wasn’t the work of a coyote, so she collected fur and scat samples and handed one promising piece of feces over to Stuart Kenn, president of the Ontario Puma Foundation. It turned out to be the most significant proof, in a field of frustratingly anecdotal evidence, that the cougar (Puma concolor) is reoccupying parts of its former eastern habitat"
Click to expand...

I read a similar article, though I know it wasn't Canadian Geographic. My sister lives in the Blue Mountains area, and it was a local publication (they may have quoted heavily from C.G.), complete with pictures. A lot of "what to do if you see one".
The biologist also noted that they have a range of 90 km (IIRC), and are very solitary, which is why sightings are few and far between.
On another note, my brother-in-law works road construction, and is usually the first one on the job site each morning. One morning, after a light rain, he found a very large set of cat tracks (he is a very experienced hunter, so I trust he knew what he was looking at). This by the way, is in Essex county... you just don't get any farther south!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom