The principal of a Gravenhurst school is warning students and parents of a potential cougar sighting.
Tim Clayton, principal of K.P. Manson Public School, has asked the school community to exercise caution.
He issued the warning Tuesday after noting that in the morning, two school staff members were on a walk near the Highway 11 Southwood Road overpass when they “observed a large cat, potentially a cougar.”
His message read: “Due to an abundance of caution, we will be having indoor recesses and indoor phys Ed for the remainder of the day.”
According to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, cougars are believed to live mostly in Northern Ontario. However, there have been many reports of sightings from the southern part of the province.
The population size of cougars in Ontario is unknown.
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Erin Jones says
Not a lot to fear from eastern cougars–they are quite shy of encounters with humans. Of approximately 100 attacks on humans ever recorded, almost all were in the western U.S. and western Canada, where the “mountain lion” (one of the many other names for cougars) tends to be larger and heavier. Cougars are members of the puma genus and are native to the Americas. Their preferred prey are juvenile deer and the young of other undulates. In that, they compete with packs of grey wolves. They are quite territorial but would be hesitant to go after an adult human male. An attack on a small child playing alone, could occur if a cougar was very, very hungry. But that would be extremely unlikely to occur on a playground full of noisy children and adults unless the animal was crazed by rabies. Rabies tends to be more of a problem with eastern cougars because of their food sources, raccoons and even the occasional skunk (both of which are vulnerable to rabies).
Never try to outrun a cougar as they can outrun an adult human in less than 100 yards and the running tends to trigger their instinct to give chase. The best way to foil an attack is to throw rocks or other heavy objects at it and be prepared to fight it with a club or walking stick. Their mode of attacking their prey is to climb a tree and wait for a hapless victim to wander underneath it, They will then snap the neck of the prey that they pounce on.
Black bears are a greater menace to humans but eastern black bears tend to be a lazy lot and prefer to go after garbage dumps and restaurant dumpsters.
Verda-Jane Hudel says
Thank you. Well written and explained. Fear of the animal having rabies is likely the only motivation to keep children inside. I remember a cougar in Muskoka calling a dog to cross a road but the cougar never tried to cross the road to get the dog.
Erin Jones says
Yes, children should be trained to NEVER approach a wild animal (especially one that is normally nocturnal in its habits, like raccoons or skunks). Often, a rabid animal in the latter stages of rabies, will come out from hiding and act really oddly in the daytime. If a child encounters one on a hiking or running trail, he/she should calmly back away and be prepared to throw rocks at the animal. If it attacks, a walking stick or other weapon can be used to fend off the attack, taking great care to avoid contacting the animal or its saliva. The average height of an eastern cougar is about the same as a medium-sized dog (although a cougar would be a little bit longer) and it will likely be discouraged and run away.
Experienced woodsmen will claim that they have never seen (nor ever expect to see) a healthy cougar during their years of tramping around in the bush. Don’t believe anyone who says that there are none in southern. or central Ontario. Farmers complain about the occasional attack on a lamb or newborn calf at night. I grew up on a farm and we would occasionally hear the scream of a cougar at night (presumably after making a kill). It is a creepy sound–almost exactly like the screams of a woman.