Cougars killed two llamas in Roberts Creek, gobbled up chickens near Gospel Rock, challenged a woman on Chapman Creek Trail near Wilson Creek and forced a weekend closure of Gibsons' Mahan Trail -all during the past two weeks.
"We've had, I don't want to say a rash of cougar sightings, but we've had a number of cougar sightings this year," said Sunshine Coast conservation officer Dean Miller. "I would say that we're higher than last year definitely, in terms of sightings."
The first of the recent cougar incidents, he said, occurred Saturday, Aug. 1, near Orange Road in Roberts Creek, when a cougar killed two llamas, then remained on the property for about half an hour. Sunshine Coast RCMP intervened to scare off the cat, but a neighbour reported seeing it a few days later.
Miller said in that situation, there were no nearby hiking trails that needed to be closed.
"You respond by calling the owners of the property and telling them to keep their kids close to the house, don't necessarily walk on the forest edge at night, be in a group, and definitely pen up your livestock at night," he said.
The next two cougar incidents occurred a week later, on Friday, Aug. 7.
The first call, Miller said, was about a cougar in the Gospel Rock area, where a number of sightings have been reported during the past three months. This time through, he said, the cougar raided a chicken coop.
"I don't know the full details; I just saw a lot of feathers around," Miller said.
Miller said he contacted the Town of Gibsons and organized for nearby Mahan Trail to be closed that afternoon while a cougar houndsman came to help track the cat.
"We ran the dog for about three hours, picking up some scent, but unfortunately we couldn't pick up a definite scent," he said. "Cougars can range about 20 kilometres in a day, so if a cat has an incident like this and becomes distressed, makes a kill, has a confrontation with a human, whatever, somebody honks their horn at it, the cat could flee for a few days and then come back to that site, or not come back at all."
Just after the Gospel Rock incident, Miller said, a second call came in, reporting that a woman had been approached by two cougars on the upper reaches of Chapman Creek trail, near Wilson Creek.
"We ran the hounddog after those cougars for about three hours as well," he said. "It was quite a day."
Miller said that once the dogs had chased the cougars to well beyond where people would be hiking, he assessed that it wasn't necessary to close any trails.
The Town of Gibsons re-opened the Mahan Trail on Monday morning, Aug. 10.
"I don't want to suggest that there's a greater threat because people are seeing more [cougars]," Miller said. "We're getting more people in the woods at this time of year, so they're more likely to see a cat."
There have been no reports of cougars attacking humans on the Coast since conservation officers started tracking cougar incidents a couple of decades ago, he said.
"The likelihood of running into a cougar is very minimal," he said.
Should you run into one, he said, maintain eye contact and back away slowly. If you have kids, pick them up. Try to make yourself look bigger by holding a jacket above your head.
"And if you find yourself in a physical conflict with a cougar, never give up," he said. "Just absolutely fight. There have been reports of people who have survived cougar attacks, and most people do, where they've just fought and fought until the cougar gives up."
