Idaho Fish and Game euthanized cougar captured in Coeur d’Alene

Idaho Fish and Game officials and the Coeur d’Alene Police darted and euthanized a cougar that was camped in a tree Monday on North Ironwood Drive in Coeur d’Alene.

The young male was likely looking for “a place to settle down,” said Jim Hayden an IDFG biologist. Hayden estimates the cougar was 2 years old.

According to KHQ the cougar was darted with a sedative around 12:45 p.m. The cat was in a tree on North Ironwood Drive.

The cat didn’t fall from the tree after being sedated. So IDFG officials climbed a firetruck ladder and pushed the animal from the tree, said Chip Corsi, Fish and Game’s regional manager in Coeur d’Alene.

Officials then euthanized it.

“We really do have a kind of zero tolerance approach to urban lions,” he said.

Cougars rarely attack humans and when they do it’s almost always avoidable. Bear spray is an effective cougar deterrent and is recommended by many wildlife managers and biologists.

However, a spate of cougar attacks and sightings in the area have put the secretive cats in the spotlight. In May a cougar killed a mountain biker near Seattle. And in September a cougar killed a hiker in Oregon.

“For whatever reason this year we’ve seen more verifiable sightings of lions in urban areas than I can remember,” said Corsi, who has worked in the area for 25 years.

In August a cougar was spotted on Coeur d’Alene’s Tubbs Hill.

Young cougars often wander across vast distances looking for unclaimed territory.

Hayden said an increasing cougar population coupled with an increasing human population is leading to conflict.

“We’re seeing dispersal and seeing the range expansion of mountain lions in the west,” he said.

That’s why IDFG opted to euthanize the animal, versus relocate it, Corsi said.

“We really don’t have places to put lions,” he said.

Despite the increasing numbers fatal attacks remain rare.

In Washington there have been 18 nonfatal attacks since the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife started keeping records in 1924. Before the May attack, the last fatality was in 1924, when a cougar ambushed a teenage boy near his home in Olema, Okanogan County. Of the 20 recorded attacks 17 have been since 1992.

The last fatal attack in Idaho was in the late 1800s or early 1900s, according to the Idaho Statesman.

The Associated Press reports that in North America there have been about 25 deadly attacks and 95 nonfatal attacks in the past century. More attacks have been reported in the U.S. West and Canada over the past 20 years than in the previous 80.

Bart George, a wildlife biologist for the Kalispel Tribe, said there has been an unusual number of cougar sightings and encounters in Washington this year.

“Right now, I think the cougar population is pretty high,” he said in an interview last week. “That’s evidenced by all of the encounters we’re hearing about and all the problem cats WDFW is dealing with on almost a daily basis in this area.”

The cougar population is likely due to a healthy deer population.

The past few winters have been relatively mild which leads to increased deer populations. Additionally, there have been no big disease outbreaks among the region’s deer population. All that means cougars have plenty of food.

Hayden said there are between 2,000 and 4,000 cougars in Idaho.