NO Cougars in Ontario

[johny]

With respect to a recent post about cougars:


There are NO cougars in Ontario.
There are a bazillion trail cams all over the province.
Most of them are situated to catch White Tail Deer-- one of the preferred foods of the cougar.
There is not one credible pic from any of these trail cams that shows an Ontario Cougar.

Any pic showing a "real cougar" has Douglas Fir or Lodge Pole Pines in the background.
Any other pic is blurry enough to qualify for a "Big Foot TV Special"

We all know the BS of Urban Legends.
When will everyone admit that Cougars are our "Rural Legend" and that there is no naturally reproducing poplulation of cougars in Ontario?

[Bushmoose]

Finally! A sane voice of reason.

[Crash2000]

The Ministry of Natural Resources has now admitted that there are cougars in Ontario, and have scat to prove it. In no way am I trying to say that the last photo in the other thread is a cougar.

[MikePal]

If you've flown over Ontario and looked out the window, you'd see the natural habit of the cougar.....who is to say there are none living in the huge vastness of wilderness.....I'm staying open to the idea, to say there are NONE is shortsighted.

[Splaker]

The Ministry of Natural Resources has now admitted that there are cougars in Ontario, and have scat to prove it. In no way am I trying to say that the last photo in the other thread is a cougar.

is the ministry stating that these are wild, natural cougars or escaped pets? I think they're they latter...

i agree with the OP... no cougars... we'd have more hard evidence by now...

[JBen]

To each his own is my motto. Some will say there are thousands of game cams, and while thats true Ontario is over a million sq km. So even if every game cam was equally distributed its still only 1 game cam per 5, 10, 50, 100 sq km. <<<Thats best case, reality is, most game cams are clustered in tight little area's.

Some will say there are thousands of trappers out there and while thats true to, Ont is huge, at issue is only a few "Cougars" and each individual Cougar has a huge range. Basically, take a place with an established population of Cougars (1,000 or more) say Montanna, BC consider how few are captured on film, seen....now compare to Ont which is much, much larger and the population of "Cougars" isn't 1,000, its maybe a dozen or two.

One does not disprove the other, but it leaves lots of room for "doubt/beleif".

And then a year or two ago, scat was found and DNA testing confirmed that yes, theres at least one Cougar out there.

[MikePal]

W
There are a bazillion trail cams all over the province.
Most of them are situated to catch White Tail Deer-- one of the preferred foods of the cougar.
There is not one credible pic from any of these trail cams that shows an Ontario Cougar.

The vast majority of those "brazillion" trail Cams in use are between Hwy 7 and the St Lawrence/Great lakes.....which also is geographically the smallest portion of the Province....

[Splaker]

To each his own is my motto. Some will say there are thousands of game cams, and while thats true Ontario is over a million sq km. So even if every game cam was equally distributed its still only 1 game cam per 5, 10, 50, 100 sq km. <<<Thats best case, reality is, most game cams are clustered in tight little area's.

Some will say there are thousands of trappers out there and while thats true to, Ont is huge, at issue is only a few "Cougars" and each individual Cougar has a huge range. Basically, take a place with an established population of Cougars (1,000 or more) say Montanna, BC consider how few are captured on film, seen....now compare to Ont which is much, much larger and the population of "Cougars" isn't 1,000, its maybe a dozen or two.

One does not disprove the other, but it leaves lots of room for "doubt/beleif".

And then a year or two ago, scat was found and DNA testing confirmed that yes, theres at least one Cougar out there.

a dozen cougars? I ain't no bio but how can a pop continue to exist with so few animals... that's not endangered, that is almost extinct for all intents and purposes.. you have to figure that b/w the trappers, cams, MILLIONS of cars that something is either going to show up splattered on the highway or caught/pictured

[JBen]

Splaker who knows.
As far as I know they have been confirmed to exist basically all around us. Que, Michigan, parts of the NE states, as far down as Florida. Cougars don't understand borders, we have the climate, we have the habitat and we are sparsely populated (humans). They have huge ranges, so maybe some are transients, part time residents like snow birds etc.

Arizona. 6 million people
Ontario: 12 million people

Arizona: 100,000 sq km ( about the size of Alqonquin Park)
Ontario: 1,300,000 sq km

Lots of people denied the existence of Jaguars in Arizona. No proof, no images, etc, etc.
Guess what they found and proved last year.


I forget the state but its similar (somewhere quite far south)...A lot smaller, way more population density. People out looking, out trying to find proof, thousands of cameras. Guess what they found last year.

Proof that Grey Wolves have migrated back down from BC after almost 100 years

[cantcatchacold]

Next thing your going to tell me is Macho Man and Hogan never really fought for Ms. Elizabeths hand in marriage.

I agree with that we probably do have some in northern ontario but not much happens up there so not many people to see or photograph them. To many people still think northern Ontario is Temagami or Algonquin.