The ignorance emanating from Bob Scammell's Oct. 10 Outdoors column in the Red Deer Advocate is bewildering.
Allowing this man to write columns on the outdoors, based on the irresponsible information and comments he included in the column “Time to take back the outdoors,” is a travesty and the Advocate is just as irresponsible for publishing Scammell's words.
In the column, which is essentially a review of Paula Wild's book The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous, Scammell argues that people should carry firearms into the woods and, “at first sight of one of these big cats,” fire a warning shot at the cougar.
“If that doesn't scare it off, then shoot to kill a known killer.”
Scammell also writes that cougars have “overrun their range” and essentially regard humans, “and particularly children,” as prey.
He concludes his column with a damning call for wildlife managers and politicians to “wake up and return these stone-cold killers to the list of seldom-seen varmints, where they belong.”
Aside from the almost criminal advice to readers to bring guns into the woods and shoot mindlessly should they see a cougar, Scammell's characterization of the big cat is so far off it's almost comical.
According to Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, there is only one recorded case of a cougar killing a human in this province and there is fewer than one instance each year where a cougar is reported to have stalked or followed a human.
So the evidence shows it is rare that a cougar will ever make contact with a human.
“The risk of being attacked by a cougar, although it is present and is possible, it's extremely low,” said Nate Webb, a carnivore specialist with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.
“People that are in cougar range need to be aware that cougars are present and they should be aware of how to respond if they do have an encounter with a cougar.”
He recommends using bear spray over firearms since less accuracy is needed to scare off a cougar.
And if you do see a cougar that appears interested in you, make yourself large and threatening, yell and throw rocks and sticks, Webb said.
On the flipside, the total “human-caused mortality” rate for cougars— which includes deaths from hunting, killing cougars on private land, road kill, removal of problem cougars by the province and accidental mortalities— is about 200 a year or about 10 per cent of the population, Webb said.
That number, he added, is sustainable for Alberta's cougar population of 2,000.
He also said there are about 650 “conflicts” between cougars and humans each year where cougars kill pets or livestock.
Such conflicts are usually the result of a human-caused “attractant” such as pets left outside overnight or people feeding deer, Webb said.
So he suggested installing good lighting on rural properties and reducing forest cover near a property's boundaries to help keep cougars away.
Private landowners can hunt cougars year-round without a licence and without limits on their property if they feel a cougar poses a threat to their own safety or to livestock, Webb added.
The province will also respond to any significant conflict between humans and cougars and remove any problem cougar from the population.
Webb said the cougar population is expanding its range, but only to the extent where it's reoccupying former habitat it lost 50 to 100 years ago due to poisonings and bounty programs.
The reality is, we have intruded on the cougar's range, not the other way around.
The message should not be to take back the woods, but to share the woods with the cougar and other animals that are vital to the ecosystems of Alberta.
To call the cougar a varmint is like criticizing the homeowner who defends his house from an intruder.
The real varmint here is Bob Scammell.
