51黑料

CANMORE – Two cougar kittens orphaned when their mother was killed by hunters near Canmore last week have been found a temporary home at the Calgary Zoo.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife officials have determined it was a legal hunt following an investigation.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 18), the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo said it is currently providing temporary care for two orphaned wild cougar kittens after being contacted by Alberta Fish & Wildlife.

“At approximately 5-6 months old, they are still heavily dependent on their mother and would not have survived in the wild without intervention,” according to the statement.

The animal care, health and welfare team has done a visual health assessment of the two young cougars.

“We’re happy to share that they are in good body condition and are doing well. A full health exam will be conducted later this week,” states the zoo.

“While their stay with us will be short, they’re receiving exceptional care as we work with industry partners to find them a safe, suitable forever home at another facility in Canada.”

The cougar kittens are being cared for at the Animal Health Centre and will not be viewable to the public.

Canmore-based wildlife photographer John Marriott, who co-founded Exposed Wildlife Conservancy, discovered the mother cat had been hunted on Feb. 10, leaving behind two kittens to fend for themselves.

He said he is thrilled and relieved by Tuesday’s news that a temporary home has been found while waiting to find a permanent placement for the kittens.

“I think there is a silver lining to potentially come out of all of this … having them in human care and being able to tell their story and keep educating people about cougars in general, but in particular about what cougar hunting does to our ecosystems,” Marriott said.

Marriott said the mother and the two kittens have been lost from the Bow Valley ecosystem forever.

“I’m still really sad, but I’m really hoping this is a catalyst for change in wildlife hunting regulations with cougars in British Columbia, Alberta and throughout Canada,” he said.

Provincial wildfire officials investigated the circumstances that led to the two cougar kittens being orphaned and left to fend for themselves.

It is legal to hunt cougars in Alberta, but unlawful to hunt a young cougar with spotted fur, or a female cougar accompanied by a young cougar with spotted fur.

"Following further investigation, FWES has determined that the reported harvesting of a female cougar in the Canmore area was done so legally as part of a regulated hunt," said Sheena Campbell, director of communications for the Ministry of Public Safety and Emergency Services.

Marriott is in shock, noting the kittens did have spots.

"I could see them with my own eyes. They’re faint, but there are definitely 100 per cent spots," he said.

The Outlook has reached out to Alberta Fish and Wildlife for confirmation of spots, and if the kittens did, what was the rationale for not laying charges. The Outlook has also reached out to the Calgary Zoo.

The events of last week began to unfold when Marriott went to check on his trail cameras he had set up along the benchlands to the east of Canmore, between the townsite and Gap Lake along Highway 1A on Feb. 10.

Before long, he came across a dead bighorn sheep 25 metres off the road by Bighorn Meadows, about five kilometres east of Canmore. He quickly determined that the sheep had been killed by a cougar, not struck by a vehicle.

Staking out the area in case the cougars came back to feed, Marriott soon noticed two or three men and a few dogs coming through the trees toward trucks and realized it was a hunting outfit with cougar hounds.

Following cougar tracks, and the bloodstained snow, he found the location where he believes the female cougar drew her last breath. There were tracks everywhere, and he initially thought there was one orphaned kitten.

However, in the coming days, he put several other trail cameras on the slopes of the mountain, which revealed there were two kittens. He was out checking the cameras on Feb. 14, and he inadvertently came across the cougars up a tree and called it into Fish and Wildlife.

In 2024, the province of Alberta under Alberta Parks Minister Todd Loewen expanded the hunting quota for cougars.

Previous quotas were carefully established to manage the cougar population and maintain a stable age structure and reduce conflict. These recent expansions go against years of science-based management.

In addition, the province added new wildlife management units to allow hound hunting in more of Alberta.

Dogs may also be used to hunt cougars during this timeframe in a cougar management area where the season remains open.

Working dogs are permitted off-leash in wildland parks as well as select provincial parks and provincial recreation areas if the authorized hunter is actively hunting cougar, the dogs can return in command and the dogs are GPS tracked.

The number of cougars hunted in Alberta from April 1 2023 to March 31, 2024, was 103, which includes resident and non-resident hunters. Of the 103, 26 were female.

Other human-caused mortality over that same period amounted to 73 cougars, referred to by the statistics as incidental, including traps, landowner kills or so-called problem cougars.

Alberta Fish and Wildlife says four cougars have been killed in the Bow Valley this hunting season by licensed Alberta residents.