There is Cougar in Ontario , hunters be aware of that .......
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There is Cougar in Ontario , hunters be aware of that .......
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just one ???
Anyone for a side bet on the number of pages this one might carry on for?
I have seen one myself about 25 years ago well on a deer drive with family members 4 men saw the cat as it passed thru the line of blockers ,was it a escaped cat most likely as I have never seen another and I know of several groups that run hounds here for coyotes and have never had a run in with a cat ,you would think that the hounds would find them if thy were in the bush ,and more guys hunting coyotes would see them ,Dutch
This is pretty vague, please tell us moreQuote:
Originally Posted by alfoldivandor
Note:Quote:
Originally Posted by trappermatt
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2014/0...ge-of-a-cougar
Must have been the same one I saw around that time in Milton. I researched this a bit on the net and discovered that one animal was tracked by the Michigan DNR and was lost around the Canada/US border around that same time, it was also seen by someone else in Burns Conservation area (Campbellville), and another individual said he found a deer carcass up a tree in the Niagara area.Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchhunter
22 pages sounds about right LOL
I have no doubt that we have cougars up here. Excellent habitat, why wouldn't they move into here?
Another one of these?
http://www.oodmag.com/community/show...ougar-Sighting
If it stays on topic it can go on for as long as people want to talk about it. If it is off topic or hijacked like previous threads those hijacking will be removed.Quote:
Originally Posted by GW11
I guess the forth coming cougar jokes will be removed then..:sad:Quote:
Originally Posted by CalTek
Its about time this came up.
Im sure they are around.
I would say 17 pages
I think a few cougars do roam through Southern Ontario but its for the most part unseen. I think most of the sightings people claim are either false or misidentified animal.
Cougars can travel thousands of miles just looking for a mate. We have enough forested area and enough deer for a cougar to take his time working his way south through the province. We had one outside our public school back in the 90's and I remember my friends dad showing us pictures of the tracks behind his house that backed onto the school.
Seeing as the MNR has acknowledged in the past that there are escapees then it is very possible they have started breeding. Which is why I find it easy to believe they exist.
The MNR is introducing them to n ip the wild boar problem in the bud
Remember Snowwalker big brother is always watching. lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Snowwalker
One day earlier this winter I had the land owner of one of the properties I coyote hunt stop me..... warning me that a cougar was in the area. She said they had the MNR on her property a few days before confirming the tracks. She told me to be careful and watch out in-case it was still around.... She never say it herself but her neighbors did which prompted the call to the MNR....I kind of just dismissed it but she is a pretty honest and respectful lady so you never know...
The farmer and neighbours next to the property I sold last year kept telling me to be careful as a black panther had been seen on a couple of different occasions on my property. I always laughed it off as local lore but now sometimes wonder what exactly was seen...
Personally, all I ever saw was a fisher and a bear but who knows...??
Understood and it was all in good fun. Just making the point that this is one of those never-ending debates that eventually fizzles out into "yeah, they're probably here but we might never know if they're wild or escapees".Quote:
Originally Posted by CalTek
To contribute to the thread, I think there are a few around but until I see pictures of juvenile cougars I won't be able to fully believe in a wild, breeding population. I'm pretty sure I saw one about ten years ago but it's still not enough to convince me.
We have the habitat to sustain a population in Ontario and have yet to hear a remotely good reason based on actual fact why they cannot exist in Ont.
I have seen one in Northern watershed area between Sudbury and Timmins. Was leaving the bush after a weekend of grouse hunting and there it was in the middle of the "road" thought it was a deer at first cause it was far. But as I got closer the dimensions seemed wrong for a deer. Legs too short/thick, next I can make out a wagging tail, too big for a lynx or wolf. Shook me up for a little while, was happy to have met him while in the car and not the quad!! That is one big cat! heck of an animal... never had another chance encounter
http://i1162.photobucket.com/albums/...fdff4584af.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by alfoldivandor
Although I believe the cougar exist in Ontario sightings don't always mean much. ;)
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1366154/th...-MAP-900.jpg?6
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THe MNRF currently lists cougars as 'endangered' (see link below), last I paid attention to this some 20 yrs ago the animal was listed as 'extirpated' meaning there were too few numbers to count. It would seem the change from extirpated to endangered indicates a rise in the population.
StatusEndangered
“Endangered” means the species lives in the wild in Ontario but is facing imminent extinction or extirpation.
Date added to the Species at Risk in Ontario List
The Mountain lion (Cougar) was already assessed as endangered when the Endangered Species Act took effect in 2008.
http://www.ontario.ca/environment-an...in-lion-cougar
I wonder if Mermaids are off the endangered species list ? lol :)
Since there are so many Apple cult members everywhere now, someday one of these new iThingies will take a crystal clear, properly focused, still motion pic of either a Big Foot or Cougar....till then ?
Good project for someone with a Drone and a Go Pro...LOL...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marker
I find it interesting that the MNRF would take the time to update their own Web page on the subject as early as August 2014.
Why? If none exists would they even bother.
It would save them a lot of time and effort to come right out and say they will no longer waste staff's time dealing with the subject of an animal that is no longer present in the province. But for some reason they do. For me it raises the question what else the MNRF feels is acceptable too mislead Ontario residents about.
There ARE cougars in Ontario. The OPP shot one a few years back in Bracebridge area. The real question is are they natural, escapees and/or the progeny of escapees??
I suspect the MNR knows their lineage but are unwilling to share.Quote:
Originally Posted by redd foxx
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
I would guess a combination of the above. Fact is we have great habitat for them and even where they are common most sportsmen never see them unless they are actually hunting them. I have no doubt they are here. I don't believe many of claimed sightings but I'm sure some are legit also. Cougars have huge home ranges and are extremely secretive.Quote:
Originally Posted by chameleon
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by chameleon
Quote:
Originally Posted by yellow dog
Would make it easier if the MNRF would just step up and be open about what they know.on thr subject.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by chameleon
If the MNRF actually released them....why would they keep it a secret??
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by yellow dog
"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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by justinmch
Maybe they got through the fence.
The park wolves were never in enclosures nor where there larger wolves brought in.Quote:
Originally Posted by justinmch
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.
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 ArizonaQuote:
Originally Posted by DanO
I have also read the research and I think connecting the Algonquin wolf to the red wolf of Arizona and new mexico was a grasp at straws to ban the hunting of wolves around the park by people that had an agenda and who were not "hunter friendly"
http://www.ottawavalley.ca/NaturalResourcesWolves.pdf
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hunter John