We have discussed in previous Postings that Vancouver Island once contained the densest Cougar population in British Columbia.........Thirty years ago 1200 animals........Now 300-400 remaining.......Trophy hunts devestating the great Cat!----A sound management plan to keep the Cats thriving is called "fundamentally flawed" by Raincoast Conservation Science Director Chris Dairmont and our friend, Senior Scientist Paul Paquet

West Coast cougars among most difficult to track

Study says conservation management fundamentally flawed

By by Julia Prinselaar, Westerly News and Judith Lavoie, Victoria Times Colonist, Westerly News

 A naturally elusive animal living in a densely forested habitat doesn't make Danielle Thompson's job very easy. A resource management and public safety specialist with Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, Thompson monitors large carnivores on Vancouver Island's West Coast. She says the cougar is among her most challenging specimens to keep track of in the region's densely forested areas. "Because cougars aren't pack animals they're extremely elusive and how they move through our forest, it's highly secretive, said Thompson. "They're just very difficult to detect out there." Typically tracking is done with hounds, says Thompson, in an effort to study cougars and use the data for conservation and wildlife management purposes. "The scent hound will try to pick up the track of the cougar," she explained, after which the cougar is usually chased into a tree and shot with a tranquilizer. Thompson studied other methods that were less invasive, including the use of remotely triggered cameras, scat detection dogs and scented pads that cougars rub against leaving behind their fur and DNA. While Thompson found the use of tracking hounds and remotely triggered cameras to be the most effective methods for the West Coast, she says the province still doesn't know how many cougars exist.

"Even some of the most highly regarded provincial experts can only estimate how many cats are out there," said Thompson. Because cougars are so elusive, they are difficult to count. The province has no firm numbers on which to base a hunt, said Chris Darimont, Raincoast Conservation Foundation (RCF) science director. "That means even the best management plan in the world for cougar hunting is fundamentally flawed," Darimont said. RCF released a study from three of its scientists last month in anticipation of the province publishing its first cougar management plan, which is currently under internal review. RCF deemed trophy hunting and habitat loss are putting B.C.'s cougar population at risk and provincial policies do not adequately protect the big cats.
For now, the province has no central planning document for cougars and relies on hunting regulations to safeguard populations, the study says. Natural Resource Operations ministry spokesman David Currie said the cougar management plan has not yet gone through an internal ministry review and it is not known when it will be released.  So far, there has been no public input on the plan, Currie said. "The cougar management plan addresses hunting and harvest management and looks at habitat requirements for cougars. It does not address the ethics of trophy hunting," he said. Provincial figures show an average of 257 cougars are killed each year by hunters and an average of 50 a year are killed because of conflict with humans.
Trends indicate cougar populations are declining and Vancouver Island, where there was previously one of the more dense cougar populations in the province, is now assumed to have dipped from an estimate of 1,200 in 1979 to between 300 and 400 in 2001, according to unpublished provincial figures.

Cougar trophy hunts continue to be held on Vancouver Island. Hunts are usually held with hounds that tree the cougar. Radio collars then send a message to the waiting hunter, who shoots the cougar out of the tree. "Conservation and management of B.C. cougars ought to consider commonly-held ethical values of British Columbians regarding biodiversity conservation and the welfare of individual cougars," said Corinna Wainwright, one of the authors of the report.  Report author Paul Paquet, RCF senior scientist and a mammalian carnivore expert, said research and education should form the basis of conservation plans. Instead, he contends the province manages populations to meet pressure from lobby groups such as the trophy hunting industry and public safety concerns, he said.  "I don't think any species should be hunted if we don't know the numbers," he said.  "At present, provincial laws, regulations and practices for conserving and managing cougars fail to address the ... growing threats to survival that cougars now face," he said.