Tag: Peterborough

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Important cougar sighting near Peterborough

Another summer is upon us and the Ontario cougar sightings continue to pour-in.

As many of you know, I’ve always taken a special interest in Ontario cougars a fascination if you will, which is odd since I’m really not a huge (domestic) cat lover.

The intrigue with these big cats I suppose might have to do with the rarity of the occurrence, although more  cougars are being spotted across the province than ever before, so that can’t be it. Heck, we even saw a local horse owner last winter who had a brush with a cougar when one attacked one of her animals.

Yes, cougars in Ontario are contentious issue regardless of where you stand and of interest to many. People see them regularly in different regions yet our wildlife agencies tend to discount any and all reported sightings. Out of fear? Lack of funding? Whatever the case, the MNRF has typically shied away from the Ontario cougar issue even though I receive a handful of cougars reports each and every month.

The letter I got today may change all that!

I received a cougar sighting report earlier this am from the Peterborough-area, which isn’t that strange as several big cats have been spotted in the Kawartha’s in recent years.

This sighting was special indeed and almost ground-breaking I would say…as the eye-witness report came to me from a Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) employee!

Alex Broks, a Land and Resources Data Support Officer with the Mapping & Information Resources Branch of the MNRF in Peterborough, was driving on Mervin Road south of Hwy 115 yesterday at approximately 4:00 PM, when noticed a doe and a fawn cross the road 40 yards away.

Following on their footsteps at a close distance was a  large cat with a long tail, it was unmistakably a cougar but not an adult in Broks’s estimation – a man who is an  avid sportsman with 35 years’ experience.

“I do know that there has been other sighting in the past few years in the Peterborough- area” Broks explained, but the MNRF always seems to contradict the sightings; too far, to foggy, maybe a slim coyote, no one else has reported anything and so on.”

This MNRF employee and former Taxidermist went online shortly after the sighting to see if any other cougars have been reported in the Peterborough area. Alex quickly discovered one of my articles on the subject and contacted me and here we are…

This first-hand cougar sighting is important, not only to further the documented evidence of big cats in the Province, but for an MNRF employee to come forward with an eye-witness account lends great credibility to the existence of these big cats in Ontario.

A tip of the hat to Alex Broks for allowing me to share this crucial information with us, without fear of reprisal. Alex told me he plans to speak with the only home-owner along that stretch of road to see if they too have seen any cougar activity in the area.

Stay tuned…

Outdoorsguy

P.S. For more information on Cougars in Ontario, the Province’s authority on big cats Rick Rosatte has published several papers on the subject: http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAAahUKEwiQ4snx0KHHAhWXEpIKHVJnDDA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcanadianfieldnaturalist.ca%2Findex.php%2Fcfn%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F11942F1187&ei=OTvKVdDhH5elyATSzrGAAw&usg=AFQjCNFgjoCbDQ63RjepRoROXo1xXk4fqg&sig2=1uDoN8zDxms6zMkta_Jqng

 

 

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Another summer of Ontario cougar sightings!

Last summer you may recall my interview with Shawn Heggert; a man who lives in a small town southeast of Ottawa. Shawn is an avid outdoorsman – hunter and fisherman – like many of us are, and is always watching the fields and forests near his house for signs of wildlife.

While driving his vehicle near Mountain last summer, something peculiar caught his attention.

A large brown ‘cat’ with a long tail was running along the roadside in front of him. It was a cougar and Shawn knows wildlife well enough to realize what one looks like.

“I wasn’t hard to tell this guy was a cougar, I mean, he was only 30 yards away and it was  broad daylight!” said Heggert.

Upon returning home, Shawn got on the Internet and began searching Ontario Cougars, which led him to one my articles in the Ottawa SUN from Summer, 2012, with the story of the cougar shot by Police in the Muskoka’s.

Since I interviewed Shawn about his cougar sighting last summer, copious other sightings have flowed, like sap in springtime, to my email Inbox . I have received, on average, 1 cougar sighting per month over the past two years and from all over the place.

There must be something to it is all I have to say! Could it be that all these sightings are from ‘pets’ or ‘formerly captive’ cougars?

Sure, the one killed by police two summers ago in the Muskoka’s had evidently been a captive animal (it had been declawed) but there are far too many sightings, across the province each year to ALL be escaped pets.

It seems no one wants to believe that a remnant population of the (now believe to be) extinct Eastern Cougar might exist in Eastern Canada, yet the sightings continue to grow in numbers. Or perhaps the other theory of an west-east expansion is more plausible? (This is the one I subscribe to)

At any rate, the number of cougar sightings continues to grow and expand into areas of the province beyond the current central & eastern Ontario cougar hotspots.

I mean, I’ve heard of cougars (4-legged) being spotted within ear-shot of downtown Toronto!!

It will be interesting to see what transpires with this one the MNR are actively trying to live trap in Peterborough.(Story by Pete Fisher of the Peterborough Examiner) To my knowledge, this is one of the first efforts the Ministry has made to live trap a cougar. (Not even sure that live trapping was attempted in case of Bracebridge cougar killed by police)

Many of the folks who’ve contacted me since 2012 stated that they got in-touch with their MNR office and were told, flat out, that cougars DO NOT exist in the province.

This live-trapping effort in Peterborough suggests that our MNR now admits, in this case anyway, that we may have some large cats roaming the province of Ontario after all.

Seen a cougar? Drop me a line anytime! I don’t own a culvert trap, but I’m willing to listen intently with an open mind!

([email protected])

Outdoorsguy

Note: Since I know Pete Fisher of the Peterborough Examiner, I contacted him yesterday about this story; which falls close to his backyard. He is providing me with updates…

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Black Bear attack near Havelock

BlackBear

Looks like old blackie got a little rough in the Havelock area this past weekend. Fortunately for Lynn O’Connor of Peterborough, her faithful companions were by her side!

 

Here’s the article from yesterday’s paper:

(QMI Agency by Sarah Deeth)

Lynn O’Connor, 53, thought she was about to die when a mother bear attacked and bit her in the stomach, but her two dogs saved her life.She is at home recovering from the vicious bear attack near her Belmont-Methuen Township cottage Sunday afternoon.

It was a little after 3:30 p.m. and she was out for a walk with her German shepherds, Jake, 12, and Kyra, 5. Jake is blind, partially deaf and doesn’t move so well, but still loves its daily walk on the 69 acres the couple owns south of Hwy. 7, about 90 minutes northeast of Toronto. Kyra was running in and out of the bushes, chasing squirrels and birds, when O’Connor noticed a bear staring at her.

A few terrifying seconds later the bear attacked.

“It wasn’t interested in the dogs, it just came right for me,” O’Connor said. “It just put me down and just started biting me. The first bite it took, I thought, ‘It’s going to kill me,’” she said.

Jake lunged at the bear and managed to distract it enough to lure it 10 feet away from O’Connor. O’Connor said she heard a yelp. The bear had knocked Jake down, and the dog struggled to get back up. Kyra stepped into the fray, baiting the bear away from Jake, O’Connor said. But the bear was still interested in O’Connor and attacked her again, biting her abdomen, arms and legs.

O’Connor’s husband Jerry, 55, was sitting in their cabin watching a football game when he heard a commotion. He said he hopped on an ATV and followed the screaming. He found his wife in the middle of the path, covered in blood. She had one of her walking sticks in her hand and was poking it into the air, he said. Jake was lying at her feet. Kyra was running down the trail, away from him, but he couldn’t see anything chasing the dog.

Jerry said he put his wife on the ATV, but by then the bear had come back. The dogs continued to protect them, he said, circling the ATV and keeping the bear at bay. Jerry drove Lynn to the cottage and got her in the car.

“She said, ‘We’re not leaving without Jake,” Jerry said.

Out of the corner of his eye Jerry saw something black racing around the corner at them. For one heart-stopping second, he thought it was the bear again. It was Jake. He jumped in the car and the family drove away.

“Those dogs are heroes,” Jerry said. “They were willing to give their lives for her.”

Lynn was released from the hospital Monday morning. The dogs don’t have a mark on them, Jerry said.

 

Although the investigation is ongoing, in my opinion the behaviour of this bear is very much predatory in nature. The fact that this bruin had returned following the initial attack and continued to pursue O’Connor and her dogs were there to protect her, leads me to a couple of conclusions.

1) Without her dogs present, this bear would have killed and eaten her.

2) This bear will, undoubtedly, turn-out to be a predatory male; responsible for  nearly all fatal bear attacks in North America.

The attack does; however, leave one burning question:

Was the bear possibly attracted by Country Music at this summer’s Havelock Jamboree??

 

Outdoorsguy