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Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Thursday 25 July 2013

Another reason to avoid the water: Cougars -


Another reason to avoid the water: Cougars - 



If you visit Vancouver Island and someone invites you to any place called Cougar Beach, do not go.

Video taken near Tahsis, B.C., earlier in July shows something rather peculiar: a cougar happily swimming between islands. Aren’t cats supposed to hate water?

Todd Culos and three friends went on a fishing trip July 15 off the west coast of Vancouver Island, and at first thought they were seeing an otter. The boat operator, however, doubted it.

“We got a bit closer and saw it was a cougar — not full grown, but big. Probably 10 feet, nose to tail,” Graham Nielsen told the Times Colonist. “It was moving real fast, too. It swam nearly halfway across — about a quarter mile. I didn’t know they could swim like that.”

While rare, swimming cougars are actually not that weird. They sometimes run into the water after deer, which can also swim, and are generally not a threat to humans if given a wide berth.

But if faced with cougars, it’s best not to run into the water in an effort to out-swim them, according to a Parks Canada spokesperson Danielle Thompson.

“I’ve seen deer do this and it didn’t go well,” she told the Times Colonist.

First whales, now cougars. Is it ever safe to go in the water? (No.)

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