To the Editor,
Re: Warnings posted in Departure Bay about cougar family, Nov. 29.
I read you article with interest, however, it did seem rather short on information.
From my own digging, and review of the media coverage, it appears that the latest information from the COs indicates four, possibly five, cougars are in this ravine in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. Also the number of deer in this area have fallen drastically over the last year which raises the question of what do the cougars eat when they run out of their natural food? Also a cougar walking up a residential street doesn’t indicate an animal that is afraid of, or concerned about, people. Lastly, and very important is that there have been five CO reports from this area regarding cougars since Oct 31 – one of which is recorded as ‘aggressive’ – and yet we are only just hearing about it.
There are people in the neighbourhood that are seriously concerned about the cougars and have been since the end of October.
Public information/distribution is the key question. And as the COs have stated, they rely on reports from the public – if the public doesn’t report a sighting, they don’t know about it.
Ron PouterNanaimo