A solid group effort was the key to getting a cougar safely back to the wild after its foray into the city, says a B.C. conservation officer.
“If we didn’t have the Victoria police and the number of officers they had in the area, and the members of the public and the community pointing out where the cougar was going from their balconies, from their condos and their houses, it wouldn’t have worked as well as it did,” said Sgt. Scott Norris. “It was great having so many people in the community helping us on that.”
The cougar wandered around James Bay Monday, creating a sensation in the neighbourhood, before it was tranquillized. It was likely the same cougar spotted in Oak Bay a few days earlier.
Using a tranquillizer dart in a situation like the one that arose in James Bay can be a challenge, Norris said.
“Administering drugs to a wild animal is not as easy as some people might think.”
In this case, the first dart stuck in the cougar’s body but came loose as the cat jumped out of a bush.
It was just effective enough to curtail the animal, Norris said.
“So he stopped, and then we were able to get a second dart into him to put him right down,” he said. “We’re fortunate it went the way it went.”
One thing conservation officers try to avoid is having a tranquillized animal running away.
“You’ve potentially angered an animal a little bit because you’ve just stuck a dart into it, and now it’s running loose in the streets with people everywhere.”
The cougar was placed in a bear trap for transfer, and was released in the Fleet River area, between Port Renfrew and Mesachie Lake.
“He was very groggy, stumbled away and kind of lay there, and stumbled away a little more,” Norris said. “I waited until finally he took off into the bush a little bit, so then I was confident that he was OK.
“I certainly hope that he’ll stay out there and find a new home out there, and won’t make his way back into any city or urban environment.”
Norris said cougars don’t habituate themselves to garbage like bears do, but can be a problem to farmers.
