SASKATOON – The cougarmania that has swept the southern plains since a Grenfell, Sask. cow was reportedly attacked and mauled by a mountain lion may be a case of mistaken identity.
“I’m really, really questioning whether it’s a cougar,” said Saskatchewan conservation officer Rick Wright, who checked out the two-year-old Charolais cow soon after farmer Kevin Haylock found the animal, ravaged but alive, in his pasture.
“She was all cut up from head to tail,” Haylock said. “There were no deep wounds, but all her skin was in shreds like if you put it through a paper shredder.”
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Haylock did not have a veterinarian see the cow, but one told him over the phone the injuries suggested it could have been a cougar attack. Wright agreed with this diagnosis, but says he felt funny about it.
“There were no big chunks of meat taken out, no blood running anywhere.” And there were no bite marks, even though cougars kill by biting. The incident occurred about one month ago.
But then tragedy struck in British Columbia, when a woman was killed by a cougar that had tried to attack her son. People in B.C. and Alberta are used to hearing about cougars, but in Saskatchewan they are much more rare, so news of the killing caused more of a stir.
Suddenly television crews began arriving at Haylock’s farm, and the conservation officer’s phone started ringing.
“It’s like cougar madness, really,” Wright said. People have reported seeing cougars on the road, cougars in their garden, cougars running across fields. Someone even reported seeing a cougar-lynx cross.
“People are seeing cougars coming out of their basements.”
Then a more analytical call came. A veterinarian said he had seen news stories about the cow, and it appeared the animal might have a rare photosensitivity disease. And a community pasture manager called to say he had seen the photosensitivity disease in other animals.
The disease causes the animal’s skin to crack and break, just like the condition of Haylock’s cow. It tends to be suffered by light-colored cattle, especially Charolais, Wright said.
Wright is still investigating the case. But he said he’ll be happy if it turns out to be a disease rather than a cougar.
“We don’t need to have wildlife get the blame for this,” he said.
