September sightings of a cougar in the city were exciting and unusual but cougar sightings in Saskatchewan are not uncommon.
Over the last 12 years, sightings in Moose Jaw have included a couple watching one sun itself in Wakamow, several sightings in Wakamow near the Kingsway Ecological Park and in Happy Valley Park along Spring Creek.
A few years ago, a cougar and kitten calmly crossed a road during daylight at the River Park Campground in front of a number of campers.
This Scribbler read a monograph published in the late 1970s detailing dozens of reported cougar sightings since the late 1940s.
Sightings increased from the 1960s on, with people seeing the wild cats all over the province.
Sightings ranged from two cougars crossing a field near Eyebrow to a cougar chasing a deer while Saskatchewan Landing Park employees scouted hiking trails, to a cougar crossing the road in front of a vehicle in the South Country.
The wildlife biologist authoring that monograph estimated the province had between 100 and 150 cougars.
He theorized they follow the province's network of rivers and creeks: starting east on the Frenchman River from the Cypress Hills, working their way up east side creeks to the Pasqua Hills and down the Saskatchewan River to the Cypress Hills. Some move up the Round Lakes and the Qu’Appelle River system to the South Saskatchewan River.
A rancher from Glentworth told me their cattle went spooky for a day or two every fall when cougars came around. One year she and her husband looked out the window to see their young children playing, unaware a cougar was stalking them. They hurried to gets the kids inside.
Wildlife photographer David Krughoff, who used to have a photo gallery in Mortlach, didn’t believe the cougar travelling waterways theory.
Krughoff, who would spend two weeks in the wild “stalking” animals for photos, believes cougars follow their food source: deer.
He advised hikers anywhere in Saskatchewan to carry bear spray for cougars after one was seen seven miles north of Mortlach.
Popular belief is that cougars dine on deer, but a study of seven cougars in the Cypress Hills Provincial Park system found they eat mostly rabbits, foxes, coyotes and some deer.
That study concluded cougars are not comfortable taking down big animals like deer. Yet cougars have jumped on horses at least twice in recent years, once near Briercrest.
Several years ago a cougar was found dining on a dead horse near Mortlach.
A Saskatchewan Conservation officer with expertise in cougars told a Moose Jaw meeting about 12 years ago that 96 per cent of all cougar sightings are actually deer, seen at dusk or dawn.
He poured cold water on the notion that cougars live in Wakamow. After the meeting a local man who had worked at the Wild Animal Park, said he knew where a cougar and her kitten lived in the river valley.
Our knowledge of cougars is less than desirable.
They are a timid animal and have been treed by a yappy little poodle. But cougars are wild and unpredictable, particularly if surprised, with young ones or caught with a kill.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
