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Whistler residents in close encounters with cougars

Cougar chases mountain bikers; local photographs treed cat in Function Junction area

Conservation Officers are on the lookout for a cougar after several reported sightings in the Whistler area last week, including two too close for comfort encounters with mountain bikers.

The first encounter took place on Saturday afternoon, May 15, when a cougar chased a group of three mountain bikers on the Flank Trail between the lookout and the Alpe d’Huez switchbacks.

Tyler Comeau was the last of the three bikers to come down the trail and saw the cougar run down an embankment after his friend Scott Robinson had passed. Tyler estimates they were going about 30 kilometres an hour when the cougar appeared, and before he knew it the cougar was on his heels, running just behind and beside his bike.

"It was keeping up with me for about 15 seconds, and for about 10 seconds of that it was maybe about two feet from me," said Comeau. "I could hear it breathing and its feet hitting the path. It was totally stretched out, in a full run."

Meanwhile Scott Robinson, the only experienced mountain biker in the group, had pulled over to wait for Tyler. He was amazed when Tyler came around a corner, slammed on the brakes and flew over his bars.

"I was quite a ways ahead and I stopped to wait for Tyler, who’s not that good a mountain biker," said Scott. "In fact that was the first time that he or Shaun (the first rider in the pack) had ever been on a mountain bike.

"Suddenly Tyler rips around the corner, and he’s going so fast. I don’t know if he saw me at first, but he slamson the brakes and flies over the handlebars. And as he’s flying through the air at the same time he’s yelling out ‘mountain lion!’ I had no idea a mountain lion had been chasing him for the last 15 seconds, and I didn’t know what I was seeing at first, but after a second a I was like, ‘yup, that’s a mountain lion’."

Tyler landed on the ground facing the cougar. He remembers two things vividly about that fall. The first was the cougar’s tail, which he says was about four feet long and bushy, and was sticking straight up in the air as the big cat dug its paws in and skidded to a halt, just inches away from where Tyler crashed. The other thing Tyler remembers is the cougar’s eyes.

"It was totally crazy. I remember flying through the air and our eyes were pretty much locked the whole time, it had these big blue eyes. It looked surprised more than anything. I think it thought I was a deer or something, and it didn’t know what to think when I wiped out in front of it, and it was skidding on the trail as fast I was," said Comeau.

"At that point I was about two feet away from it, and its ears were right back. It looked like it was just about to leap forward, and it had its paw up, and I just went crazy – I picked up my bike up over my head and just started screaming at it like I was a bear or something."

Comeau, who is six-foot-one and 180 pounds says that the cougar was probably about 20 pounds heavier than he was. The body was more than eight feet long with the tail.

"It didn’t seem like it was all that scared, I think all did was confuse it a littl e, but it took a few steps back and I took a few steps back, and I got back to where Scott with my bike and we pedalled out of there," he said.

Scott credits Tyler for probably saving his life – if Tyler hadn’t put on the brakes and gone over his handlebars when he did and kept on going, the cougar would have come upon Scott while he was standing still on the side of the trail.

"He was a hero, definitely. I was about 20 feet away, but Tyler was right there, face to face with it, just inches away, and screaming at it. I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t have any time to really think about it," said Scott.

"If he had stayed on his bike and kept riding, I would have been standing there waiting for Tyler when the cougar showed up, no momentum or anything. It would have had me. It’s pretty amazing it worked out the way it did."

Tyler says he doesn’t know why he decided to pick up his bike and challenge the cougar, but he did the right thing according to the Chris Doyle, the conservation officer for the area.

"(The mountain biker) made himself look as big as he could and yelled at it, which was the right thing to do in this case, because the cougar was aggressive and did back off," said conservation officer Chris Doyle. "You never want to show a cougar your back.

"It’s extremely unusual to see a cougar in this area, although they do use it from time to time. We’re obviously very interested in this animal."

Although it was Comeau’s first experience mountain biking, he says he will go again. "I’ll probably bring pepper spray or something with me, but I’d like to try it again," he said.

The next cougar encounter took place on Sunday, May 16, when Whistler architect Dennis Maguire was taking a mountain bike break from work in Function Junction. He was riding on the Old Millar Creek road, which connects Function Junction to Alta Lake Road, when he saw the cougar on the trail about 30 metres away.

There was little doubt as to what he was seeing. "I knew it was a puma right away – it was way too big to be anything else," said Maguire.

"It turned around and looked at me, it didn’t run off. That’s when I decided that discretion was probably the better part of valour and I turned around and rode the other way."

At first Maguire said he was worried that the cougar would follow him, but a little further down the trail he ran into another cyclist who was with his dog. He told the man about the cougar and they decided to go on together, believing that the cougar would be a lot less likely to attack a group.

About a kilometre north of Function Junction the dog spotted the cougar and gave chase. The two men followed the dog into the woods and discovered that the dog had treed the cougar in an alder near the railway tracks. That’s when Maguire pulled out his camera and snapped a couple of pictures.

"I don’t know if I would do that again, the cat was only maybe 30 feet up the tree and didn’t looked that scared of us. It was a little too close, maybe. I took a few pictures and we got out of there," said Maguire.

"That’s the only time in my life I’ve ever seen a cougar in the wild, and it was just amazing. It’s not something I want to do every day."

He doesn’t know how big the cougar was, but he says it was larger than the dog which was about the size of a full-grown German Shepherd.

"We’re really fortunate it ran off because the cougar could have easily killed the dog," said Maguire. "I was getting a little nervous myself because as I said it didn’t run when it saw me, it just turned around and looked at me."

There’s no word on whether it was the same cougar, although the Flank Trail does connect to Function Junction and both groups described the cougar as large and a little on the skinny side.

These weren’t the only cougar sightings in Whistler. Last week Doyle received reports of a cougar from work crews in the Soo gravel pit, but too late to take any action.

If they receive a current report of its whereabouts conservation officers will use a dog team to locate and tree the cougar, says Doyle. Once the cougar is treed they will assess whether it’s better to stun and relocate the animal or to destroy it.

"We’d prefer to relocate it, but if it’s sick or injured in any way or is really aggressive then it’s safer to destroy the animal," said Doyle.

Local black bear researcher Michael Allen received another report about a cougar sighting about ten days ago at the Green River Crossing, and says it is possible that Maguire saw the same animal.

Allen says that people should be aware of the sighting, although it’s rare for a cougar to stay in one place for an extended period of time.

"That same cat could be in Squamish the next day," said Allen, who has only made eight cougar sightings in the Whistler area over the past 11 years. Allen does have some experience studying cougars in the interior of the province, and has worked on a documentary on the reclusive cats for the BBC.

He usually studies cougars during the winter because the tracks give them away – during the summer months they are almost impossible to find.

"They are very rare here, because we don’t have the deer population to keep cougars in Whistler – although the deer in the ski area seem to be increasing in numbers bit by bit, especially on the ski hill. Maybe in the future we’ll start getting more sightings.

"Right now we know they’re in the Pemberton area and in Squamish, and some of them probably pass through Whistler from time to time."

Cougar attacks are rare but can be serious. In January a cougar attacked a pair of mountain bikers in California in separate incidents, killing a man and mauling a woman.

According to the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection cougars are most active from dusk to dawn. If you do encounter a cougar or a cougar is spotted in your area, the Ministry offers the following tips:

  • Never run or turn your back on a cougar.
  • Always watch the cougar and know where it is.
  • Give the cougar room to escape.
  • Pick up nearby children and household pets.
  • Raise your arms to look bigger.
  • Act aggressively, and if possible throw rocks or sticks at the cougar.

People are asked to report unusual cougar or bear activities immediately to the conservation office as soon as possible to minimize risk and give conservation officers a better chance of finding the animal. You can call 1-800-663-WILD (9453) 24 hours a day or email chris.doyle@gems5.gov.bc.ca.