Canim Lake residents Dirk and Sylvia Schumacher got a bit of a shock when they looked out of the window of their lakefront home on Feb. 9. Sylvia says she heard a “weird noise” at the door around 10:30 a.m., and when she went to investigate, she saw a cougar on the deck next to the door and it was chewing on one of Dirk’s shoes. “Fortunately, I didn’t open the door and I carefully looked out the window. I couldn’t believe what I saw,” Sylvia says, adding it was a really big cat. Later, they discovered the cougar had been scratching at the door. “It must have smelled food or something and was trying to get in,” she adds. After watching the cougar for a while, they phoned the Conservation Officer Service at 1-877-952-7277 to let the operator know what was going on and they requested that a conservation officer attend their home. Then they phoned their neighbours to warn them about bringing their pets inside and to not go out for a walk because there was a cougar in the area. Dirk says it stayed on the deck and just continued to gnaw on his shoe. “She totally destroyed it, but what am I going to do with one shoe,” he says, chuckling. While they waited for assistance, they continued to watch the cougar. Dirk decided it was worth taking a chance by opening the door and snapping a few photographs of the cat through the glass storm door. Noting they have lived at Canim Lake for about a decade, Sylvia says they have seen fox and bear on their property and in the area, but this was the first time they had seen a cougar. Dirk says he saw some cougar tracks at the back of the house a couple days earlier. “And a neighbour had seen tracks all over the place a few days earlier, so we knew there was one hanging around.” He adds it remained on the deck for almost 90 minutes and then sauntered off. About 10 minutes later, CO James Zucchelli showed up and they described the cougar’s appearance to him. After talking to the Schumachers and hearing about cougar tracks being found around the area for the past week or so, and taking into account the cat hung out on the deck for more than an hour, Zucchelli says the animal was definitely showing signs of abnormal behaviour. It wouldn’t have been too long before it became involved in some sort of negative activity with a family pet, he says, adding he knew it would have to be dispatched. Zucchelli started tracking the cougar, and knowing the cat was obviously old and starving because it was chewing on a shoe, he used a predator call to attract the cat. The conservation officer tracked it for about 45 minutes before he saw the extremely scrawny cougar that was coming towards him. He then put it out of its misery. “She was definitely starving and just a bag of bones. Her teeth were worn down and I doubt if she would have made it through the winter.” He notes that when there’s a lot of snow, cougars will be attracted to areas where it’s easy to travel and look for food. Zucchelli adds it’s too tough for them to chase down deer in the deep snow, and cats and dogs make much easier prey. “That’s why we tell people to keep their pets indoors at dusk and dawn. People have to be aware of what’s around them … if it’s normal to see deer in the area, then it’s normal for cougars to be in the area.” Zucchelli suggests people should take the time to Google the Ministry of Environment’s Safety Guide to Cougars so they get to know what cougars are about and what to do if there’s a confrontation.
Cougar dispatched in Canim Lake neighbourhood
This female cougar, who was in bad shape and unable to capture prey, was so hungry that she spent more than an hour gnawing on a rubber Croc left on the deck of a Canim Lake home.
