Don Holland was watching the news in his family room last weekend when a cougar paid him an unwelcome visit.
The cougar had walked onto Holland's downstairs patio when, according to Holland, it noticed him through the sliding glass door and starting growling.
"It was snarling at me and looked very aggressive," said Holland. "It was huge. Its tail was four feet long."
He was about to go out on the patio to get something from the outside cupboard when he noticed the cougar and backed away from the patio door.
"We would have come face-to-face if I had set foot on that patio," said Holland.
He lives on Wharf Road in Langdale, near a large wooded area and the YMCA campground. He also has a cat that roams outside often.
Mike Girard, conservation officer for Powell River and the Sunshine Coast, said the cougar was probably attracted to the house by the cat, and then startled at the sight of Holland.
Holland said his cat was on the upstairs porch at the time of the incident, and his wife quickly went upstairs to let the cat in.
"Its eyes were as big as saucers and it was all puffed up. It heard the cougar growling," said Holland.
He said he was shaken by the incident that ended with the cougar slowly walking off his porch and into the bush near his house.
"I phoned the police and they gave me the number for the conservation office in Sechelt, which just rang and rang. Then I phoned them back and they said someone would be by to talk to me, but that still hasn't happened," said Holland.
Sunshine Coast RCMP Sgt. Danny Willis said the after-hours dispatch sometimes gives out the Sechelt conservation number even though it is no longer in service.
"It usually switches over to the 1-800 number," said Willis.
But Girard said the old office numbers for Sechelt and Powell River are no longer active, and people who have an encounter with wildlife should call the 1-800-663-9453 number.
"That number is like a dispatch for the RCMP. The system can work a lot better if people just call that number," said Girard.
He said messages can be left with the people manning the phones, who will then page Girard if there is a problem he needs to deal with.
"They can also give a lot of information over the phone," said Girard.
Willis said the police won't attend a call "unless there is immediate public danger."
Police have been inundated with calls about bear and cougar sightings and complaints that they don't have the time to deal with.
Girard complained of the same problem, saying the challenge to cover conservation officer duties for Powell River and the Sunshine Coast is overwhelming.
"It's all I can do to barely keep up the operations of our own district, never mind the Sunshine Coast. Stuff eventually falls off the plate," Girard said.
He noted the Coast should have a new conservation officer situated here in September, which will help ease the load.
But in the meantime, Girard asked anyone reporting a bear or cougar sighting or incident to phone 1-800-663-9453 (WILD), which is manned by operators 24 hours a day, every day.
He noted the south coast has the highest population of cougars in North America, and "chances are you pass one every day in the bush and don't even know it, because it's not interested in you. It's just following its food source around."
Girard said deer are cougars' favourite food source, and the abundance of deer on the Coast helps ensure a healthy cougar population and helps limit cougar attacks on household pets and livestock, an alternate food source when deer are in limited supply.
"People are only occasionally confronted by cougars, and attacks on humans are extremely rare cougars have learned through thousands of years living with humans that we are not easy prey," said Girard.
But Girard noted cougars are part of the cat family and "cats are naturally curious."
In the event of a cougar encounter, Girard recommended people make themselves look as large as possible and slowly move into a group. He said you should throw stones if the cougar starts to come toward you, talk aggressively and pick up a stick.
"Make eye contact with the cougar. Don't look away. Looking away shows weakness in the animal world pick up any small children or pets because pets are attractive to cougars. They're like a raccoon or a wild rabbit that cougars may eat from time to time," said Girard.
He also added never to run from a cougar because "that's what its prey does."
He said hikers can carry pepper spray with them if they are worried about bears or cougars in the woods but stressed cougar attacks are very rare.
"People are more likely to die from wasp stings or dog attacks than be attacked by a cougar," said Girard.
