Eastern Cougar

Now here is a much discussed subject... there is little proof that the Eastern Cougar still exists in Eastern Canada. A hair sample collected in Fundy National Park in New Brunswick, however, has given believers a whole new argument. (www.pc.gc.ca/nature/eep-sar/itm2/eep-sar2c.aspx and www.pc.gc.ca/eng/docs/v-g/ie-ei/at-ag/sec5/page1.aspx ). While believers of Cougars in Eastern Canada have been painted as 'foolish' in the past and any sightings were shrugged off as 'impossible' or 'inconclusive', hair samples collected in Fundy National Park in the last years have been confirmed to be of cougars!

I, Digger, am a believer! When in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, the tracks we saw at the top of Chamcook Mountain were decidedly BIG and decidedly CAT. We never saw or heard a thing, but when heading back down the tracks going right ACROSS our own tracks in the mud were unmistakable.

And then look at Kejimkujik National Park and the Tobeatic Wilderness Reserve in Nova Scotia - the largest remaining inland wilderness reserve in Atlantic Canada. Many rumours go around about alleged cougar sightings, but none have been confirmed. It seems to make sense that cougars, among many other endangered species, have found a safe shelter in this wilderness area where so few people ever come. Considering as well that it took them from 1938 till recent years to confirm cougars were still around in Fundy National Park... It tells you a lot about the elusiveness of these creatures.

Kejimkujik and the Tobeatic Wilderness Reserve are home to many species at risk, a few of them being: the northern ribbon snake, the southern flying squirrel, brook trout, and the blanding's turtle. It is for good reason that these 2 areas together form the core of the SouthWest Nova Scotia UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

In 2007, volunteers Harold and Diane Clapp discovered a new population of blanding's turtles in the Tobeatic Wilderness Area - the first population of blanding's turtles found here. It gives hope for this endangered species, and it makes you wonder who else might be hiding out there. This amazing wilderness area still holds many secrets for us, why not the Eastern Cougar as well?

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