Cougar in SE Ontario.

We have a report of a cougar sighting in SE Ontario. I will let the member post the exact location, if he wishes. I can confirm that I have seen the images, and it is certainly a cougar. It is one of the darker brown colours, not the typical tawny colour, as in my avatar.
That is the first photo evidence of an Ontario cougar, that I am aware of.

neat! There have been quite a few cougar reports in the ottawa area, I have spoken to several witnesses. 1 of them was a darker colored cat.

There was a photo taken of a cougar near Owen Sound about 5 years back. It made the local newspaper. Also, see this link for a cougar photo from North Bay late in 2011.
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3396969

We like to hear of cougar repors, and especially those that have pics or video.
I could never understand why the MNR took so long to publicly acknowledge existence. We know that MNR was aware of cougar in Ontario, and even had/has an officer dedicated to cougar monitoring for the past 40 years.

whats still bothersome is that the MNR still does not acknowledge that there's a breeding population. Thats just crazy!!!!

FWLIW, I think that photo was discredited as a hoax....

Which photo was possibly discredited? The North Bay or Owen Sound area one? And, would you happen to have a link to the possible debunking? Thanks

I recall that the photo of the caged cougar was proved a hoax, but I don't remember the details, other than it was claimed the photo was the first of a cougar in Ontario, since the 1886 shooting of the "last " cougar.

This is the article that I thought was debunked later.
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3396969

Here's what I found online:
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3403359

But, it's the MNR that's claiming it's a hoax. Take that with a little bit of salt, as this is the same agency that for years denied the existence of cougars in Ontario.

I'll see if I can dig up the Owen Sound cougar photo.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Area+captures...5099/story.html

Thanks for that link, M-stu. I am a little peeved that my time was wasted. I respected Derek Peasley's request not to publish his video. I edited the video to a manageable size, by clipping the second half, that was shaky, showed a roof, and had no cougar content. The length was way too big to email, so we had to use the File Share utility in Google Talk. I also provided the still photo, which was the best frame of the video.

But we had a problem. Without a scaling reference, the "cat" could be a cougar, or just a regular housecat, domestic or feral. So I asked Derek to take another video, showing a human standing in the same path as the cougar, and holding a 2x4 horizontally, at waist height. I would then add the second video to the first, so viewers could have a size reference. This would give the video much more credibility than it now has. Derek was then going to post here. He created a membership here, just for this video.

However, for whatever reason, Derek chose to go to the Ottawa Citizen with what I had given him, before he had a video that had some credibility. I will help anyone. I just do not like wasting my time.

BTW, I mentioned Google Talk File Sharing above. If you want to send very large files, start a Google Talk, (not Google Chat), and then "share"the file. If you are on Group Talk, you can send to everyone. I don't know the size limit, but it is over 50mB.

What a shame, I wonder what the rush for publicity was all about? Especially after all the confidentiality stuff, to move towards a local newspaper?

Peter that's a great tip about the google service. For a while it was hit and miss, I think it was still in its infancy when I last tried it in a 300mb ISO image but I do recall getting it to work. It was a while ago, but heck, it worked!

Some may find this interesting:
http://easterncougar.org/pdfs/Cougar%20evi...-125rosatte.pdf

Hey Guys...new member here from Dundas (Hamilton)

I thought I'd mention a cougar sighting I had in this area about 15+ years ago now. I went fishing very early one morning at Burns Conservation Area (It's kind of north of Burlington and just south of a town called Moffat).

It was just beginning to get a bit light out and i had just set up my rod. I was standing beside the pond there and something moving behind me caught my attention. I turned to see a cougar running along the treeline, past my location, and then a bit further along the trees before it turned and ran into the woods.

I was about 30 or 40 feet away (maybe 10-15 steps) so was very close to it. I watched it for a good 10-15 seconds and it was definitely a cougar. I could see the entire animal clearly. I was shocked at how big these animals are. I would extimate that it was at least 7 or 8 feet long when running (head to tail)

A few years later I was looking online for info about cougars and noticed that there was some sightings from the town of Moffat a few years after my sighting. I let Rick from the MNR know about it.

I knew it was very unusual but didn't realize they were that rare in Ontario. I should have let the MNR know earlier...they probably would have found tracks in the soft ground.

James W
(World Biosphere)

Hi James, welcome to the forum! Great to see some "locals" pop in for a visit (I live in Dundas as well).

That cougar sighting is pretty close to home. I could imagine some of the panic or hysteria created if it became public knowledge. Look at the bear sightings and shooting in Burlington just a few days ago, made headlines on all the major stations. I'm disappointed to see the poor Ministry response on that, even more disappointed to say that they no longer relocate and it's up to the region to take care of the situation.

I can bet you that with the "stealth" like nature of a cougar, being a top predator, it could probably avoid detection for sometime within city limits, but as you point out, it's size, 7-8 feet, would stand out if it was on the run.

I'm always traveling though the Mountsberg and Cambellville areas as part of my commute to work, hoping that I might catch a glimpse of the more "elusive" wildlife. By the look of things, that might just happen

Great to have you onboard!
Jason