There have been recent sightings of cougars in the region, notably in the Christina Lake area, where cougars were photographed and caught on video by a resident.
“One of the residents out there was able to get a couple of photographs of what looks like a family unit that was moving through the area,” says conservation officer Dave Webster.
“This is not completely uncommon, it’s pretty rare to get them on film but this is definitely cougar country and we’ve got a pretty healthy population of cats around right now.”
Webster says that the family has been sighted in a number of spots in the area.
“We’re just kind of monitoring them right now to see what kind of activity they’re going to get up to,” he says. “Hopefully they’re going to disperse and move on.
As of yet there haven’t been any major problems caused by the
cougars. “At this point I have not received any complaints come in to me indicating any problems other than just the odd sighting, and seeing tracks in the morning and stuff in different areas, so at this point we haven’t had any livestock killed.”
Webster says that tracks in the morning are usually the only sign that they’ve been there.
He adds that it’s usually the younger cats that will be coming into contact with humans, since they are still trying to figure things out.
He advises to monitor pets since they could be in danger and adds that there are also a high number of bobcats in the area, which can get into yards and may target house pets.
Other than that, it’s been a fairly average January in terms of wildlife sightings, Webster says.
He adds that if you do run into a problem you can report it to
conservation officer services at 1-877-952-7277 (RAPP)