Cougar shooting in city an international incident

Luke Simcoe, The StarPhoenix
Published: Wednesday, October 08, 2008

A South Dakota cougar's 900-kilometre journey ended with three gunshots Tuesday on Saskatoon's west side.

Responding to a cougar sighting in the 300 block of Avenue J South, Saskatoon police officers, at the direction of Saskatchewan Environment officials, shot and killed the cat after determining it posed a risk to the public.

Avenue J resident John Rutherford, who directed police to the cat on his front lawn, called the shooting "misguided" and unprofessional. He said he would have reconsidered phoning police if he had known what was going to happen to the cougar.

"I feel responsible for the cat," Rutherford said.

"When I heard the crack of the first shot, I felt really bad. We shouldn't be killing them."

After the shooting, officials discovered the cougar had been collared as part of a study being conducted by South Dakota State University (SDSU). Jonathan Jenks, an SDSU wildlife and fisheries professor, said the cougar was one of 80 cats involved in a research project based in the Black Hills -- a 200-km mountain range that stretches from South Dakota into Wyoming.

Jenks said his team lost track of the cougar, a two-year-old male, in April when it was still in Wyoming. He estimated the cougar travelled almost 960 km to get to Saskatoon.

"That's an underestimation," Jenks said, noting cougars seldom travel in a straight line. "Their movements are often erratic or circular."

Jenks said it's not surprising the cat strayed from his initial habitat, as an estimated 90 per cent of young male cougars leave the Black Hills.

Still, the length of the cougar's trek is remarkable, he said. Only one other cat, which travelled 1,060 km south into Oklahoma, has covered as much distance during the course of the study.

"He's definitely the farthest one north that's been documented," Jenks said of the Saskatoon cougar.

Marvin Hlady, a wildlife specialist with the Ministry of Environment, said he was disappointed there's no record of the route the cougar took on its journey.

"It would have been interesting had they tracked him the whole way," he said.

Hlady is uncertain about how the cougar got to Saskatoon, but he said it may have been following the South Saskatchewan River system.

"Most cats like to follow river corridors," he said.

Hlady described cougars as "very secretive animals," and was surprised one had wandered so far into an urban centre.

Still, Jenks said cougars will enter urban areas and hunt domestic animals if they're hungry enough.

Rutherford said the cougar in his front yard "was just laying there minding his own business."

Although he didn't phone in the initial sighting, Rutherford tipped police off after a search failed to find the cougar.

When police and Environment Ministry officials arrived, Rutherford said he suggested they tranquilize the cougar or use a net.

Instead, deciding the animal posed a risk to the public, police officers shot and killed the cougar. It took three shots to bring it down.

Hlady says tranquilizers are not always enough to subdue wild animals and officers had to act quickly because the cougar was in a residential area.