I was talking to a friend at the gym the other day (boy does that sound cliché), and we got talking about hiking. I mentioned that Tyler and I hiked Teapot a lot last year, and we were looking forward to hiking this year. We got talking about the increased Bear sightings already this year, and she mentioned that a friend of hers that hikes Teapot almost daily said she saw a Cougar eating a freshly killed deer on the side of the trail.
Well as usual I took it as regular Gym talk, therefore not too seriously, but yesterday I got talking with one of the guys that runs Vedder Mountain Field Supply, the place where Ty and I got our boots and other hiking stuff. He was telling me that not only was it true, but the conservation officers went up the other day and moved the carcass off the trial. I guess the Cougar killed this deer right on the trail that everyone walks. So the chances of an encounter with it feeding were very high. He also mentioned that there have been several sighting of this Cougar (a big male) and a smaller female.
Now I told this to Tyler last night at dinner, and he was a little hesitant to want to hike any time soon. The thing is though a Cougar that is stuffing him/herself on a deer is a HAPPY Cougar and will not be interested in man as a food source. This was also a comment made by the conservation officers, it is a good sign, but it is rather odd to actually see a Cougar, they are solitary animals and rarely are seen let alone feeding. Usually you don’t see them until they are starving and that is not the kind you want to see.
Yup... if it's visibly feeding, there's less danger to you as hikers.
I'd suggest getting some bear bangers to take with you if you decide to go hiking anyways; they're essentially thehiking equivalent of the "flashbang" on a little pen-like device; you aim above the bear's (or in this case cougar's) head and fire.
If it's happily fed, however, it will likely leave you alone if you make enough noise on the trail (our current bear-avoidance technique while hiking in the Kananaskis, which is pretty much grizzly country).
Posted by: Darren at February 22, 2005 10:29 AM