Excerpt from BCWF 2024 Annual Repot (shared at the 2025 AGM)
The Southern B.C. Cougar Project aims to address key knowledge gaps in cougar ecology in British Columbia's southern Interior. The study is led by PdD candidate Siobhan Darlington, supervisors Dr. Adam Ford and Dr. Karen Hodges, and wildlife biologists TJ Gooliaf and Sean O'Donovan in the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship in partnership with the Okanagan Nation Alliance. The objectives of the study include collecting baseline cougar population data and analyzing their diet composition and habitat use in three study areas across the southern Interior between Princeton and Cranbrook south to the U.S. border. Two study areas, the West Okanagan and the Boundary, overlap with the Southern Interior Mule Deer Project.
We have completed at total of 88 captures, installing GPS collars on 56 cougars (37 female, 19 male) and replacing 32 aging collars. We have collared 22 cougars in the West Okanagan, 14 in the Boundary, and 15 in the Kootenays.
Twenty-three mortalities have been documented to date (18 human-caused, five naturally caused), including eight from hunter harvest, five from human and livestock conflict, two rodenticide poisonings, two vehicle collisions, and one incidental snaring. Natural-caused mortalities include four cougars that were killed by other cougars, and one cougar that was killed by an elk. There are currently 10 cougars that are alive with working collars.
We have been monitoring juvenile cougars to estimate reproductive success in adult females and measure juvenile and adult cougar survival. We have ear-tagged 59 cougar kittens in 26 litters, with an average litter size of two kittens per litter. Cougar kittens have an estimated survival rate of 50% from birth to one year of age. Lifetime reproductive rate is 3.2 female offspring per adult female cougar, and adult female survival is estimated to be 75 percent to age five, dropping to 30 percent survival to age eight. These results will be included in an upcoming cougar demography report to support the development of an integrated cougar population model for the province.
We are continuing collaring efforts opportunistically for long-term monitoring and to support the cougar inventory project to estimate population density in the Kootenay study area. Cougar kill-site investigations are complete for the project and the data are currently analyzed and in preparation for publication. Additional student-led projects on the program include avian scavenger activity at cougar kills, the influence of coyotes and black bears on cougar feeding duration, and den site habitat use in disturbed landscapes.
Respectfully submitted by Siobhan Darlington
