Imagine walking through the bush and spotting a recently-killed coyote that has been neatly buried, a sign that the animal responsible 鈥� probably a cougar 鈥� is probably nearby, or returning for another meal in the near future.
Cougar sightings like this are "very rare" says Frank Ritcey, Wells Gray Park wilderness expert, author, and former provincial coordinator for WildSafeBC, who was in the right place at the right time at the end of January.
Ritcey and two hiking partners were near Merritt when they came across a coyote kill that had been covered with frozen snow. They decided to place trail cams around the area to see if they could capture some footage when the cougar returned, but little did they know how close it was: right above them, which they realized when they spotted a long, fluffy tail hanging down from the branches above them.
"I was checking on my trail cameras and I got to thinking that cougars don't normally leave their buried kill alone," explains Ritcey. "Usually they will bed down close at hand so they can run off anyone that would steal their meal.
"I surveyed the land around me, realizing there is really no good place for a cougar to hide where we were, except for maybe the big tree I was under."
Ritcey says it was at this point that he "thought to look up" and saw "this big rope of a tail swinging above my head." He and his two friends backed off a ways in order to assess the cat and get some pictures.
"It was not stressed so I finished setting up my cameras, with Ted and Chris on lookout, and we left the cat to its guard duties," says Ritcey. "The cat didn't seem to mind being photographed with a full belly after eating some of its kill, and even dozed off while we were taking photos." In some of the film footage the cougar can be seen cleaning its face, whiskers, and paws after dining.
Ritcey was the provincial coordinator for WildSafeBC from 2011 to 2018, and is a well-known B.C. author, outdoorsman, radio show broadcast host, snake expert, and respected Wells Gray Park documentary filmmaker. He grew up in Wells Gray Park and Kamloops, and now lives in Merritt with his wife Raven.
