Saskatchewan’s environment ministry has embarked on a two-year study of cougars in the Cypress Hills.
The study follows one carried out on the Alberta side of the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park over the last two years.
Mike Gollop, the ministry’s fur and problem wildlife specialist, said the study will help develop a management plan for cougars and look at the interaction between cougars and livestock. Although there are documented cases of cougars killing livestock, there have been no problems in the Cypress Hills.
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“We want to get a little more sense of at what frequency there might be problems,” he said.
Three hundred kill sites were examined in the Alberta study and not one involved domestic livestock, he said. Seventy-seven percent were white-tailed deer kills.
Gollop said there are lots of cattle in and around the park.
“This brings a little more confidence to local ranchers that (cougars are) not really causing any problems,” he said.
Cougars are protected under the province’s wildlife regulations but farmers and landowners have the right to kill one to protect their livestock.
