Cougars are hard-wired to kill, that’s how they survive. But do they always chase prey because they’re hungry? No one knows for sure.
There are instances where cougars chose to tackle large prey such as a buck elk even when smaller animals are readily accessible. Biologist and cougar safety expert, Dave Eyer, speculates this might be because some cougars like a big challenge even when no one’s around to applaud.
I’ll take that one step further and suggest that sometimes cougars chase prey for practise or for the sheer pleasure of the pursuit. Of course, if they catch what they’re after, they’ll kill and eat it.
Take a look at these photos of a cougar chasing a howler money through the trees in Costa Rica and see what you think.
Cougars are built for short-term speed, agility and strength. Their skeletal structure is held together by muscle more than ligaments, which makes them incredibly flexible.
Much of the big cat’s strength is found in their powerful rear legs, which can propel them five metres straight up from a standstill and 14 metres horizontally onto the back of their prey.
To view an example of a cougar effortless jumping, watch this short trail camera clip. Note how the cougar bypasses the lower part of the fence to easily bound over as two metre high section.
Can you see this cougar peeking over the backyard fence? Jumping over it would be as easy as for the big cat as blinking an eye.
Cougar cubs lead precarious lives. Other predators – even male cougars — prey on them. They can also become sick or get injured. But perhaps the worst thing that can happen is losing their mom.
This three-week old cougar kitten was photographed in southern California by Eric York while working for UC Davis Wildlife Health Center.
Most young adult cougars head out on their own when they’re 18-months to two-years old. By that time they have rudimentary hunting skills and are usually large enough to take down prey on their own. Even then some young cougars don’t survive.
But if mom is shot by a hunter, hit by a car or killed taking down prey when her cubs are younger than 18-months old, their chances of survival decrease dramatically.
Cougars are secretive carnivores so much about their day-to-day lives and relationships with each other remains unknown. So it was a real surprise when researchers with Panthera’s Teton Cougar Project in Jackson Hole, Wyoming discovered a female cougar with young of her own had adopted three orphaned cubs.
Drawn to Sea: Paintbrush to Chainsaw — Carving Out a life on BC’s Rugged Raincoast, by Yvonne Maximchuk is an intimate glimpse of modern day pioneering seen through an artist’s eye.
Drawn to Sea is published by Caitlin Press
In the 1980s Maximchuk was a single mom living in White Rock, BC. She supported her two children by selling her paintings and pottery and teaching art. Then she met crab fisherman Al Munro. When Munro shifted to prawn fishing further up the coast, he invited Maximchuk, as well as Theda and Logan to accompany him.
Their new home — a float house only accessible by boat or seaplane – was anchored off Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago, a wilderness area east of northern Vancouver Island.
Maximchuk rowed her children to the to the one-room school and adjusted to life with a generator and the fact that the nearest grocery store was a two-hour boat ride away. She also soaked up the beauty and tranquility of the sparsely populated area, which soon infused her artwork.
But when Munro and Maximchuk split up, she faced a tough decision. Remain in the place she’d come to love or return to an easier life in the Lower Mainland? If she stayed, two major purchases were required: a chainsaw and a boat.
So began the challenge of being self-sufficient in an out-of-the-way pocket of the BC coast. Maximchuk was buoyed by the friendship of others living nearby including coastal icons Alexandra Morton and Billy Proctor. Proctor, with his “If I can’t do it, no one can,” attitude was especially helpful and always had whatever part was needed to fix anything and knew just how to do it.
When Maximchuk reunited with Munro, they bought land from Proctor and sweated and swore together as they built a truly handcrafted house. One that they still live in today and that now includes Maximchuk’s SeaRose Studio and a lush garden.
Drawn to Sea is an honest, affectionate story about love, the landscape and a gutsy woman finding her way in the ebb and flow of life. Maximchuk recounts the challenges and rewards of living and working in an isolated area and trolling with Proctor off the Queen Charlotte Islands. Nature and wildlife is never far away; she’s found cougars in her yard, been eye to eye with a killer whale and shared a finshake with a dolphin.
The book is funny too. I laughed out loud over the stories of Maximchuk dangling Proctor overboard in order to capture an especially large Japanese float, the kinks in her wedding day that failed to dispel the joy and one of her best Christmas gifts ever – an orange survival suit.
Maximchuk writes with a painter’s eye and a poet’s voice creating a richly rewarding sense of place, time and emotion. Drawn to Sea is a BC coastal classic that deserves a place on the shelf next to M. Wylie Blanchet’s A Curve of Time.
