Aug 11, 2015
According to the Oak Bay Police and as reported by CFAX, there have been four cougar sightings reported in Oak Bay yesterday, Monday, August 10. The sightings occurred around 6:45 a.m. in the Musgrave and Dewdney Street areas. Police were unable to locate the single cougar but have put warning signs up in the nearby Uplands Park. The BC Conservation Service has been called in and is following up.
There have been single cougar sightings from time to time in Victoria for many years.
In 1992, a cougar was captured in the parking garage by the Empress Hotel. In 1989, a cougar smashed through the glass window of a downtown basement suite. In 1961, a cougar was killed in the 1400-block of Government Street and in 1926, a cougar was shot behind the Carnegie Library building on Yates Street.
Courtenay author Paula Wild (The Cougar: Beautiful, Wild and Dangerous), says that “… the boundary between human and cougar habitat appears to be blurring in modern times. Increasingly, humans take to the wilds for recreation. Meanwhile, young cougars, forced out of prime hunting territories by older, more experienced cats, will venture into the city to eat dogs, cats and raccoons. Not to mention deer, which are plentiful in urban areas within Victoria and other cities”.
Cougars tend to hide or flee from areas where humans are, but if you live near the vicinity where the cougar sighting took place, please keep a close eye on your pets – keep them on a leash or inside. Cougars do not like loud, sustained noises – carrying a whistle is a good idea.
In a Times Colonist article by Adrian Chamberlain in November 2013, he quotes Wild as recommending “being aware of one’s environment. If birds suddenly “start chirping” or, conversely, if it becomes unnaturally quiet — that could be a tip-off a cougar’s lurking. If confronted by a cougar, fling sticks and stones. Make yourself look large as possible by throwing up your arms. Make noise. And maintain eye contact — it’s a way of establishing dominance”.
Aug 2, 2015
Warm thanks to Animal Alliance for so generously funding a new run of signs for the UWSS.
The signs have the familiar doe and fawns crossing, but say “CAUTION – EXPECT DEER”…once again they are popping up in Oak Bay, Victoria, Saanich, and all the way out to Sooke.
The goal is to get drivers to SLOW DOWN in areas where we know deer cross – let’s keep our streets safe!
Remember to slow down, scan ahead, and when you see a doe cross, expect up to 3 fawns will follow.
Thank you Animal Alliance, and to everyone who has taken a sign.
Email [email protected] for more information.
Aug 1, 2015
One of the things that is very important to the Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society is that citizens of Oak Bay and other municipalities are able to have a good understanding of our initiatives.
We continue to work on not just our immuno-contraception plan, but also on public education and human-deer conflict reduction – especially encouraging drivers to SLOW DOWN in areas where we know deer to be.
Please see our Letter to the Editor of the Oak Bay News for our most recent update!
http://www.oakbaynews.com/opinion/letters/319619441.html
Re: Council frustrated with lack of provincial aid on deer issue, (OBN July 24).
The Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society was very happy to receive $5,000 in financial support from Oak Bay council and is now looking forward to an opportunity to explore how best to work together on deer management.
The UWSS has several objectives. One main goal is to demonstrate a non-lethal alternative to lethal culls – immuno-contraception is listed as an option in the provincial document that guided the Regional Deer Management Strategy and as Alice Finall, Mayor of North Saanich and the chair of the CRD’s Planning, Transportation and Protection Services Committee, said last week, “deserves a much better chance.”
Director Vic Derman agreed with the scientific evidence-based approach of the UWSS, saying “if we are going to intelligently attempt to manage deer, we absolutely have to start out with being able to survey, identify and enumerate the population and then track what happens to that population over time.” Tagging and tracking the deer in Oak Bay, along with vaccinating the does with a contraceptive vaccine, is an important element of our program.
Another goal is safety. For instance, no one wants to hit a deer and see it suffer, or leave a fawn or two as orphans to starve – however we also don’t want to see vehicles travelling at an unsafe speed collide with a deer and cause bodily harm to the occupants or swerve at a high speed to miss a deer, and cause a more serious accident.
To that end, we have successfully initiated a sign and advertising campaign to remind people to slow down in areas where deer are known to be, and we are planning community information/education workshops in conjunction with the BCSPCA for the fall.
Deer eating gardens continues to be an issue for some. We believe we can help through ongoing public education. As a farmer, CRD director John Ranns endorsed the UWSS saying “I think, from my experience in living with deer on a day-to-day basis, that [immuno-contraception] has the best chance of success of anything I’ve seen other than fencing.”
Quite rightly, there is pressure on the province to improve supports for urban deer management. Along with providing supports for contraception plans as an alternative to divisive lethal culls, the province needs to implement much more stringent guidelines for mitigation of human-deer conflict and for ensuring public education specific to individual communities is effective, sustained and given time to make a difference.
As the CRD recognized, deer are clearly a shared responsibility and there are certain steps that municipalities will continue to be responsible for such as community engagement, human-deer conflict reduction and public education. While the pilot project that Oak Bay undertook was time consuming and costly, it’s important that deer management not now be brushed off as solely a provincial responsibility.
Along with gathering significant information from the immuno-contraception program, there are important and effective conflict-reduction steps that together, Oak Bay and the UWSS can implement.
Kristy Kilpatrick,
Urban Wildlife Stewardship Society
Jul 17, 2015
The UWSS will be at the Moss Street Paint In, tomorrow, July 18, between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Come and chat with one of our board members, learn more about our work, and sign up for a sign – we have more “Caution” signs being made due to the high demand from people who want drivers to slow down where we know deer cross.
We will be beside the Art Gallery – come on down!
