Cougar leaping fence

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.
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.

 

Wild female cougar adopts orphaned cubs

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.
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.

Teton Cougar Project dir­ect­or, Howard Quigley, tells the story in New Insight into Cougar Behaviour.

 

Drawn to Sea by Yvonne Maximchuk

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
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. 

For more in­form­a­tion vis­it www​.yvon​nemax​imchuk​.com.

Paula and Yvonne at a Drawn to Sea book signing. Photo by Theda Phoenix.
Paula and Yvonne at a Drawn to Sea book sign­ing. Photo by Theda Phoenix.

 

Drawn to Sea by Yvonne Maximchuk

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
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. 

For more in­form­a­tion vis­it www​.yvon​nemax​imchuk​.com.

Paula and Yvonne at a Drawn to Sea book signing. Photo by Theda Phoenix.
Paula and Yvonne at a Drawn to Sea book sign­ing. Photo by Theda Phoenix.