No cougars in Nova Scotia, province says, despite reported sightings and rumours – Halifax

The eastern cougar, which is a subspecies of the cougar in eastern North America, was declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011.

Meanwhile, western cougars exist and thrive in western parts of Canada and the United States.

Despite evidence from Parks Canada pointing to the presence of cougars in neighbouring New Brunswick, as well as hundreds of reports over the years, the Nova Scotia government maintains there is no cougar population in the province.

Biologist Bob Bancroft has been studying the reported sightings — including his own firsthand experience — and is certain eastern cougars are not extinct as people are led to believe.

“There have been hundreds of reports,” said Bancroft. “The official word has never been allowed to come out. It’s that simple, I’m afraid.”

In the early 2000s, Parks Canada conducted a research study in Fundy National Park, which confirmed the presence of cougars through baited hair-traps and cameras. With the males known to wander more than 2,000 km, Bancroft says it’s not a surprise there have been encounters in Nova Scotia.

In 2009, he says he was lucky enough to have one of his own.

“I was driving at 11 o’clock in the morning and here was this cougar walking across a side road, probably about 30 metres away from me in broad daylight,” he said.

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Kimberly Brown says she had a similar incident and is certain she encountered a cougar — also in 2009 — in Pictou, N.S.

“We were just driving and it was dark out in the summer. So, we just saw something run across the road and we stopped,” she recalled.

“My friend that was with me was like, ‘Uh, that’s a cougar.’ And we saw the tail. We know the difference between a bobcat and a cougar. So that’s definitely what it is.”

Since then, Brown has been reading up on cougars and sharing stories online with other people who believe they’ve had similar sightings. She encourages people to share videos and photos to confirm, once and for all, that a population does exist in Nova Scotia.

“There were so many sightings, like all over Nova Scotia. And I know for a fact they are in Ontario. I’ve been told they’re in New Brunswick as well. So there’s nothing stopping them from crossing (the border to Nova Scotia),” she said.

“I know they’re very elusive, so they try to remain unseen anyway, and they travel at night or dusk, so it’s hard to get a picture of them if you were going to anyway.”

While skeptics are quick to write off sightings as bobcats or lynx, the tail speaks for itself.

According to Bancroft, Lynx have jacked-up rear ends and bigger feet than bobcats, but both have short, stubby tails. A cougar’s tail, however, is long like an oversized house cat’s.

A video posted from Digby Neck, N.S., posted in 2019, shows what appears to be three cougars in a woman’s backyard. And just last week, another cougar sighting was reported in East Pubnico on a Yarmouth community Facebook page.

‘No confirmed evidence of cougars’

In a statement, the Department of Natural Resources said there is “no confirmed evidence of cougars in Nova Scotia since before 1900” but that the department continues “to take all reported sightings seriously.”

“While reports are received and investigated each year, none have ever resulted in confirmed physical evidence, like hair, tracks, or scat of a cougar in Nova Scotia and currently, there is no evidence to suggest a resident population exists in the province,” the statement added.

The department said other areas of Eastern Canada, including New Brunswick in 2003, have had physical evidence of cougars. In the case of New Brunswick, the department says genetic testing confirmed two different individual animals.

“Experts suggest these records most likely involved cougars passing through the region or escaped captives rather than a breeding population,” the department said.

But Bancroft disagrees and suggests the government’s interests may play a role.

“If a species is declared endangered, the governments are supposed to set aside core habitats,” he said.

“So basically, cougars are a real conundrum if you’re involved with (the) petroleum industry, the forest industry or mining industry.”

He says he’d like to see measures to protect these habitats so that all species can thrive.

Potential cougar sightings can be reported to a local DNR office or online as part of the Significant Species and Habitats Database.

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