Cougars in Ontario ......

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Originally Posted by chameleon

I suspect the MNR knows their lineage but are unwilling to share.
I maybe wrong but I would think scat samples could be tested to determine lineage.
Some suspect re-introduction by MNRF/ Some think released by people who could not handle them in captivity.
Some think natural survivors

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No the MNR has not done a re-introduction of cougars. I have also heard that for many years and Timber wolves as well in the Kemptville area almost 25 years ago. All made up stories but I believe some have been released by people having them as pets and realizing they are not cute and cuddly when they grow up and want to eat them.

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Originally Posted by yellow dog

No the MNR has not done a re-introduction of cougars. I have also heard that for many years and Timber wolves as well in the Kemptville area almost 25 years ago. All made up stories but I believe some have been released by people having them as pets and realizing they are not cute and cuddly when they grow up and want to eat them.

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Would make it easier if the MNRF would just step up and be open about what they know.on thr subject.

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Originally Posted by chameleon

Would make it easier if the MNRF would just step up and be open about what they know.on thr subject.

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I know a couple of retired MNR and had asked that question and the answer was no. They both said rumors have spread throughout various communities that Timber Wolves were released and Cougars over the years.

If the MNRF actually released them....why would they keep it a secret??

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Originally Posted by yellow dog

No the MNR has not done a re-introduction of cougars. I have also heard that for many years and Timber wolves as well in the Kemptville area almost 25 years ago. All made up stories but I believe some have been released by people having them as pets and realizing they are not cute and cuddly when they grow up and want to eat them.

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In the 50s they brought Northern Ontario Grey Wolves (Timbers) to Algonquin Park, or at least moved some larger wolves in there to help knock back the deer population, grandpa drove the truck they were in.

"In the 50s they brought Northern Ontario Grey Wolves (Timbers) to Algonquin Park, or at least moved some larger wolves in there to help knock back the deer population, grandpa drove the truck they were in."

I knew an old guy who worked on that wolf project in Algonquin. He told me it was a research study and the wolves were kept in an enclosure. I think the head researcher was Doug Pimlott.

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Originally Posted by justinmch

"In the 50s they brought Northern Ontario Grey Wolves (Timbers) to Algonquin Park, or at least moved some larger wolves in there to help knock back the deer population, grandpa drove the truck they were in."

I knew an old guy who worked on that wolf project in Algonquin. He told me it was a research study and the wolves were kept in an enclosure. I think the head researcher was Doug Pimlott.

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May have been, he was just the truck driver and they were hush hush. The number of wolves at the south end of the park did go up and deer populations did go down after that with the guys seeing a lot larger wolves and more of them. The whole family is from that area too.

Maybe they got through the fence.

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Originally Posted by justinmch

"In the 50s they brought Northern Ontario Grey Wolves (Timbers) to Algonquin Park, or at least moved some larger wolves in there to help knock back the deer population, grandpa drove the truck they were in."

I knew an old guy who worked on that wolf project in Algonquin. He told me it was a research study and the wolves were kept in an enclosure. I think the head researcher was Doug Pimlott.

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The park wolves were never in enclosures nor where there larger wolves brought in.
The history of the wolves in the park is pretty well documented.
Up until 1959 the park rangers shot wolves to keep the numbers down and limited to 2 (or 3???) pack.
After that they were allowed to breed and fragment into packs which soon overflowed the park and moved south eventually mixing with the coyote population. They virtually exterminated deer in the path of their expansion. I hunted in 55B from 1976 on, every year except '81 and '82. I saw my first deer in '79. The next deer I saw was in '84.
The wolves we have now (even in the park) are coyote hybrids, nowhere near the size of the original park wolves, although now and then you hear of a guy getting a large wolf or coyote.
Pimlott was the original researcher. John Theberge picked it up after that.
While their research is not bad, the conclusions they draw from those are hard to believe.

The greatest damage to the Algonquin wolf was done, not by hunters, but by these researchers. Through there advice to the MNR, they brought about the end of wolf control in the park in 1959 which allowed the wolves to mix with coyotes. The Algonquin wolves are gone forever now - hybridized to extinction, replaced with the coywolf mutts that run through a large chunk of North America - Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hamshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut - probably missed a few too.

Well that's kind of weird Weirner because the Theberge research indicates the Algonquin Park wolves are actually not timber wolves but instead the EAstern Red Wolf more common to the Appalachians. For that reason the AP wolves are supposedly protected from hunting in zone 48. They're on the endangered list I believe.

I've always hear the Pimlott research was done in a very large pen at Opeongo. Once the study was done the wolves were released from the pen thus the many local rumours about the MNR releasing wolves into the Park. I certainly experienced the Local hostility to the MNR when I worked in the Whitney area.

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Originally Posted by DanO

Well that's kind of weird Weirner because the Theberge research indicates the Algonquin Park wolves are actually not timber wolves but instead the EAstern Red Wolf more common to the Appalachians. For that reason the AP wolves are supposedly protected from hunting in zone 48. They're on the endangered list I believe.

I've always hear the Pimlott research was done in a very large pen at Opeongo. Once the study was done the wolves were released from the pen thus the many local rumours about the MNR releasing wolves into the Park. I certainly experienced the Local hostility to the MNR when I worked in the Whitney area.

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DanO Makes a great point, A couple of years ago I came across a research paper coming to the same conclusions that the Algonquin park wolf was quite possibly a relative if not the same as the Red Wolf. I am aware of ongoing re-introduction efforts taking place in New Mexico and I believe Arizona