Sean C. Morgan
Sweet Home police have called in a government trapper to help evaluate the situation after a local resident encountered a cougar while on a walk the morning of Sept. 18.
Police Chief Jeff Lynn said the man was walking on north 43rd Avenue about 9:56 a.m. when he met the cat, which did not retreat and started making hissing noises at him.
“It stood its ground and stared at him,” Lynn said. The walker, Jason Bowen, was able to call police and Lynn said the cat bolted when it heard approaching sirens, running into the woods around the old mill property at the end of 43rd Avenue.
The cougar, which has been sighted in the neighborhood at least six times, was hissing and growling, with its ears laid down and tail tucked, said Bowen, who reported the sighting. He was heading down to a couple of ponds below the road to fish.
He said the cougar has been spotted in the Osage, 42nd and 43rd area at least six times. The cougar, along with a cub, has apparently used a neighbor’s deck as a den. Recently, when his neighbors went outside to smoke, the cougar fled from underneath the deck.
Bowen led a reporter along the route he took. Before heading out, he grabbed his bow just in case. He headed onto a path through the trees from 42nd Avenue to the parking lot of the city’s Flex Building. Turning left onto 43rd, he didn’t walk far to point out where he saw the cougar.
As he described the encounter to The New Era Friday evening, a low growl came apparently from the tree line to the left and west of where he was standing on 43rd Avenue.
“Did you hear that too?” Bowen asked. Later, his fiance, who had followed after about 15 minutes, reported hearing what she thought might be a cougar dropping from a tree and moving through the brush.
Bowen said he saw the cougar at less than 20 yards, just north of the first curve past where the road heads downhill, just beyond the Flex Building. The mountain lion jumped out from the brush and went partly across the road, he said. He didn’t know who startled whom, but she stopped at the east edge of the roadway and watched him. Along with the hissing and growling, she screamed, sounding like “a woman being beaten.”
He slowly reached down, grabbed his phone and dialed 9-1-1. He told the dispatcher what was going on, and the dispatcher asked if it was the cougar making the noise in the background, Bowen said. He didn’t know where the cub was at, but the cougar stood her ground for two or three minutes until she heard the siren.
Her ears popped up at the siren, and she took off, Bowen said. She probably weighed 75 to 90 pounds. Her cub is about a quarter of her size.
The sighting not only scared him but makes him nervous for his family, with five children and one grandchild at home, he said.
“I feel a little bit more comfortable with this,” Bowen said, hefting his bow. “But I really don’t want to tangle with it.”
Police have recorded 10 cougar sightings within the city limits since July 1.
Sightings have been reported at Oak Heights and Foster schools and at the Holiday Park, on Main Street across from Thriftway. And in the past couple of years, cougars have been spotted multiple times around the rodeo grounds in the 4000 block of Long and in the Midway area on Main Street.
Two weeks ago, with a sighting along the tracks near Foster School, the students and staff reported a large cougar, said Supt. Don Schrader.
He said he mentioned the sighting to a couple of people walking near the school, and they said they had seen the cougar, which had a little cub.
The school district didn’t let students out on the playground that day. At Foster, the students usually play on the blacktop inside the school courtyard anyway, Schrader said.
The people he worries about are the ones who are using the school fields in the evening after the schools are closed, Schrader said.
“We’ll keep (the children) in the classroom if there’s any danger.”
He said the district also calls the parents of any students who walk home to let them know about the sighting.
The Oak Heights sightings were just before the beginning of the school year. Residents have also reported at least one cougar sighting on the South Hills Trail, which runs behind Oak Heights School and stretches from Elm Street, through the Canyon Creek neighborhood, and on to the southwest city limits.
“Prior to this incident (on 43rd Avenue), there hadn’t been any interaction between cougars and people,” Lynn said. “People have just seen them running.”
He said a government trapper has been called in to “evaluate options.”
With the daytime sighting, along with a cluster of other sightings, Lynn said, “we just want to try to do something if it is becoming more accustomed (to humans). We’re hoping to be able to live trap it and we’re trying to work out the details of that.”
Lynn is uncertain how many cougars may be among those sighted, he said. “Cats can cover a tremendous amount of ground. Whether there’s one cougar in the area or several, I don’t have that information yet.”
The railroad could serve as a corridor for a cougar with its low levels of traffic, Lynn said.
Ron Henthorne, a private trapper, who has dealt with many local cougars, said it’s hard to say what’s going on inside Sweet Home right now. Henthorne said he receives about six to 12 complaints per year. He traps a couple cougars per year when the cats damage livestock in the region between Lebanon and Eugene.
“I think people have a tendency to overreact a bit,” Henthorne said. If word gets out about sightings, then more people seem to report cougar sightings. He is not saying people aren’t seeing cougars, because they do – and he has an example from about a year ago where a resident has photos; but sometimes people incorrectly identify what they’ve seen.
At the same time, there hasn’t been one issue with attacks on people in Oregon, he said. Joggers and bikers have been attacked in California, where hunting bans have been in place longer than Oregon.
Cougar numbers have grown since voters banned hunting with dogs in 1994, Henthorne said. Very few hunters can find success without dogs Hunters say that without the help of hounds, they usually are only able to take cougars during accidental encounters as they target other game.
“That’s the only way to get them back under control,” Henthorne said. “Until we get hound hunting back in the picture, I don’t see a chance of improvement.”
Without hounds, it’s hard to find the secretive cats, he said. Most of the time, no one sees them.
If TrapFree Oregon passes a ballot measure in 2014 restricting trapping, it will throw raccoons, coyotes and bobcat populations into the mix with the growing cougar population, Henthorne said.
“That’s just the political atmosphere we’re living in,” Henthorne said.
Cougars are highly territorial, and their population has reached the saturation point, Henthorne said. “Cats won’t tolerate younger cats in their ranges.”
When young cats look for territory, they don’t go into the mountains to the east where food is scarcer, Henthorne said. Instead, they show up around towns, where pets and livestock become prey.
Sweet Home Police suggest the following, from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s website, on what to do if you encounter a cougar:
n Make sure the cougar can escape. Cougars often will retreat if given the opportunity, so make sure the animal has a way to escape. Stay calm and stand your ground and maintain direct eye contact.
n Never turn your back on a cougar. When picking up children, do so without bending down or turning your back on the cougar, and back away slowly. Raise your voice and speak firmly. Do not run. Running triggers a chase response in cougars, which could lead to an attack.
n If the cougar seems aggressive, let it know you’re not going to be an easy target. Raise your arms to make yourself look larger and clap your hands and, if in the unusual event that a cougar should attack you, fight back with rocks, sticks, tools or any items available. Raise your voice and speak firmly.
n Learn your neighborhood. Be aware of any wildlife corridor or places where deer or elk concentrate. Do not feed any wildlife. By attracting other wildlife, you may attract a cougar.
n Walk pets during the day and keep them on a leash. Keep and feed them indoors at dawn and dusk and shelter them for the night.
n Don’t leave food and garbage outside.
n Be more cautious at dawn and dusk, when cougars are most active.
n If you spot a cougar, call police at (541) 367-5181.