The killing of a cougar at Englishman River Park just after Christmas was the final incident in what Conservation Officers are calling a “significant conflict year”.
Conservation officers had to kill the cougar on December 28th after it behaved dangerously in 4 different encounters with people.
Sergeant Ben York says it was a scenario they saw a lot last year, and it was the 12th cougar put down by the COS in the mid-Island region in 2013.
York says one reason for the number of conflicts could be the increasing number of deer in urban areas, which is bringing the cougars closer to residential neighbourhoods. Some Vancouver Island communities are considering deer culls, and late last year several Nanaimo councillors indicated it might be time for the city to the same
Wildsafe BC, meanwhile, says only 1 cougar had to be killed last year on the Sunshine Coast.
