Saanich police say they received a call of a cougar spotted on Queenswood Drive just before 10 p.m. Sunday night. The cougar was not spotted by authorities that attended. File photo courtesy CBC.
Thomas Fyfe says seeing a cougar in his family’s yard was a once in a lifetime moment, although a scary one, too.
After hearing noises outside his parent’s basement around 9:45 p.m., Fyfe went out onto the balcony and shone a light from his cell phone when he spotted a cougar had a hold of a deer in its mouth.
“It was pretty scary. So startling and such a shock,” Fyfe said.
“It looked at us for five seconds, dropped the deer and then started to walk away. It was like it was looking at us right in the eye.”
Fyfe was in the family’s basement when he heard a noise that he thought came from St. Patrick’s Day party-goers.
But then went upstairs to alert his family after hearing a hissing noise.
Saanich police says they responded to the call, but attending officers did not see the cougar that had ran off to the beach.
Police say the deer was on the ground for several minutes and was seen by officers moving cautiously on the property before it took off.
A deer lay on the ground for several minutes in the yard of a home on Queenswood Drive, but Saanich Police says it was seen moving cautiously on the property before running off. Photo courtesy Gordon Fyfe.
Fyfe says the family was told by police the cougar could be in the area for a couple of days.
He then spoke with a B.C. Conservation officer Monday morning and was told there was likely no imminent danger for residents in the area, suggesting the cougar would have probably travelled a few kilometres away after being scared off.
Peter Pauwels with the B.C. Conservation Office says risk to the public is low, saying cougars can cover great distances along the shoreline.
He says public risk is low as the cougar was showing natural behaviour and was going after a natural source of prey.
CHEK News
