A juvenile cougar that was collared and relocated by Parks Canada last winter was found dead outside the park boundaries Jan. 16.
The male cougar was accidentally caught in a trap near Moosehorn Creek, north of Brule, according to Jeff Kneteman, a senior wildlife biologist with Alberta Environment and Parks.
鈥淚t was an accidental trapping,鈥� said Kneteman, who鈥檚 based out of Hinton. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it was dead in the snare or whether he had to kill it.鈥�
Kneteman declined to say who was responsible for setting the trap, but said it was legal.
鈥淲e get a few every year this way,鈥� said Kneteman, about accidentally trapping the wrong animal.
鈥淎ll cougar kills have to be registered so we can track the number of human caused kills and the cause of kill.鈥�
Once it was reported, Alberta Environment and Parks relayed the information to the Jasper Field Unit.
鈥淧arks Canada is aware that the cougar was trapped,鈥� wrote Steve Young, communications officer for Jasper National Park, in an email.
He said the cougar was relocated near Devona last winter, but the agency eventually lost the collar鈥檚 signal.
According to Kneteman, it is believed the cougar was the brother of another juvenile that was killed by a train near the Moberly Bridge rockcut, just east of town on March 2, 2015.
Both animals had been hanging around town in December 2014, leading to their relocation.
鈥淎 lot of these young animals will die because of human activities because they haven鈥檛 quite figured out how to stay away from us yet,鈥� said Kneteman.
He said if a cougar is accidentally killed the animal is destroyed to ensure nobody can take the hide and they don鈥檛 create a black market.
Jill Seaton, chair of the Jasper Environmental Association, acknowledged that there was nothing illegal about what happened, but called for buffer zones to be established outside national park boundaries to ensure animals from the park aren鈥檛 unnecessarily killed.
鈥淢y concern is there should be buffer zones around these parks,鈥� said Seaton.
鈥淭his is something people have been calling for a long time, particularly with predators like wolves and cougars who travel long distances.鈥�
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
