'You want to fight back': Wildlife expert praises Alberta man for punching angry cougar
It turns out 'wrassling' with a cougar wasn't such a bad idea after all
A Parks Canada wildlife expert is praising an Alberta man for fending off an angry cougar by punching it in the head.
The man-on-beast battle happened on Boxing Day, after dusk, at the edge of a Whitecourt Tim Hortons parking lot.
Will Gibb had let his dog out for a washroom break, when he heard Sasha thrashing and yelping in pain. A cougar had sunk its teeth into his husky's neck and was clawing its flesh.
The Red Deer electrician pummeled the wild cat in the side of the head, and finally managed to fend it off with a big stick. "I wouldn't recommend everybody wrassle with a cougar, but in this case it worked for the best," an RCMP sergeant later told CBC.
A human-wildlife conflict specialist and resource management officer agreed.
"He did exactly what we would recommend," said Steve Michel, who works in Banff National Park. If you are in a conflict situation with a cougar, you want to fight back.
"You want to convince that animal that you are not prey and it will not be successful if it tries to take you on. That's absolutely the correct reaction if you get into that very, very rare situation."
Never turn your back on a cougar, said Michel. Do not run. Back away slowly, always looking the animal in the eye. Sudden movement or flight may trigger an instinctive attack.
If you are charged, pepper spray and sticks can be effective weapons.
But there is one caveat.
Though fighting back may be your only option if you come face-to-face with an angry mountain lion, putting yourself in harm's way to protect your pets is not advisable, said Michel.
'They are opportunistic predators'
"It may be sometimes better to be thinking about the safety of yourself and your family and just retreat and leave the pet to its own devices," said Michel.
"But if you are in a fight with a cougar involving people, you want to be aggressive."
Canada's largest wild cats, cougars are solitary creatures that prey on deer, wild sheep, elk, rabbits, birds and other small animals. But pets and even children can — in rare cases — become attractive to the big cats.
"Most cougars tend to stick to their primary prey," said Michel. "But they are opportunistic predators so if there is an opportunity for something, they may well take advantage if they see it as a chance to feed."
Shortly after Monday's attack the 45-kilogram female cougar was found in the woods nearby and killed on site, as it was ready to pounce on the wildlife officers who were called to the scene.
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The cats may roam up to 80 kilometres in a single day, and can have ranges up to 300 square kilometres, but they are rarely seen in urban areas.
What brought the animal to Tim Hortons is unclear, Michel suspects the mountain lion was either old and diseased, or immature and struggling to hunt.
Usually it's only starvation that will bring cougars out of the bush.
"An animal that's in its prime will usually be content to stay very elusive."
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