Alberta Parks and Forestry Minister Todd Loewen, a known hunter and lifelong trapper whose family also runs a hunting business, is once again catering to his inner circle. This time, he’s taken it further by opening up a Provincial Park, Cypress Hills, for cougar hunting, creating more shooting opportunities for his hunting buddies.
Here is a brief recap for those who missed Loewen’s Alberta ‘wildlife management’ strategies in 2024.
First, grizzly bear hunting in the province was re-opened, and “problem bears” can now be “taken care of” by a pool of “qualified hunters” instead of trained conservation officers. You know, got a problem bear? Call up a local posse.
In early November, the province then chose to lift the trapping limits of Wolverines, lynx, river otters, and fishers. The province thinks trappers can effectively “survey the population” of these species by trapping as many as they like. Who needs biologists and their silly live survey methods when trappers can collect ‘real numbers’ of dead animals to inform the province just how many animals lived in the province? According to Loewen, these numbers from trappers will help set future harvest limits.
Say what?
The province then condoned a province-wide wolf trapping and killing contest with big cash prizes to regulate ungulate numbers.
And now a cougar hunt in a provincial park?
We’re starting to see a pattern here.
Why Open Up the Cougar Hunt?
Are cougars wreaking havoc and eating pets and livestock in Cypress Hills? Or is the population of cougars too large for the land’s carrying capacity?
Nope.
Cougars were once hunted out of the Cypress Hills and only started returning in the 1990s. It was only in 2006 that a breeding population was in the park was confirmed.
Overall, in Alberta, cougar numbers are down. The government itself estimated there were approximately 1,559 cougars in Alberta in 2019, down from 2,050 in 2012.
Despite the decrease in cougars in the province, the government increased the quota for the number of cougars that can be killed from 106 in 2022-2023 to 132 as of Dec. 1, 2024.
Todd Loewan has a canned written response to anyone questioning his decisions about wildlife management: “We make decisions based on facts, not opinions.” He also stated in the legislature that “science is an ideology.”
Neither science nor the province’s cougar population survey seems part of Loewan’s ‘facts’ playbook.
“This is a change that encourages hunting of a species that is isolated, has declined, and is maybe just starting to recover, but there’s no evidence that we need a hunt or that this will in any way manage the population,” said Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Ironically, trophy hunting cougars often leads to more wildlife/livestock problems because Cougar hunting targets large, healthy and mature cougars, allowing smaller and weaker cougars to survive that will look for ‘easier’ prey to capture like livestock.
Secrecy and Lack of Consultation
Like the grizzly bear hunt and lifting of trapping limits on furbearers like Wolverines, the government quietly made these changes without consultation, press releases, or public input, and Leowen often does not respond to news outlets’ requests for interviews.
This has many people, including the general public, up in arms. Jasper Local contributor and former JNP biologist Mark Bradley wrote, “If you want to erode trust among Albertans, you don’t bother consulting them before locking and loading your Ministerial pen.”
Hunters and Recreationists Mixing It Up?
Secrecy and anti-science decisions aside, many Albertans can’t see hunting and tourism mixing in the provincial parks.
John E. Marriott, cofounder of Exposed Wildlife Conservancy, said in a Facebook post, “…cougar hunters with their GPS-collared hounds and their high-powered rifles will be out there sharing the park with families cutting Christmas trees and cross-country skiers enjoying nature. It’s as absurd as it sounds, particularly when you consider that this is completely against the park’s current Management Plan.”
Marriott wonders if this approval is the start of a slippery slope: “It begs the question, what’s next? Will Loewen start opening other provincial parks to hunting? Will he start allowing other ecologically-important species to be hunted more broadly?”
Interestingly, hunting has not been allowed in Cypress Hills Provincial Park, except for elk at certain times of the year, to reduce the population because of a lack of natural predators—let that irony sink in!
Albertans For or Against the Move?
If the r/Alberta Reddit thread indicates popular opinion, most respondents are against the cougar hunt in Cypress Hills.
There are a few exceptions, mainly from a few residents of Elkwater complaining that the local wild turkey population, an introduced species in Alberta, have been decimated since cougars returned to the area.
Another person living in Elkwater said “I have personally had 3 cougars try and attack my dogs in my backyard, which included cougar tracks on the roof of my house and garage.”
Marriott says since biologists started studying cougars in the park in 2006, there’s never been a livestock predation incident involving cougars, and the only conflict occurred in 2013 when two young juvenile cougars killed a couple of pets outside Cypress Hills Provincial Park.
Others are happy that cougars are in the park to deal with the large deer and elk population, which had become problematic before the cougars returned.
Whether you are pro or con cougar hunting, most Albertans agree that they do not want secrecy and a lack of consultation regarding government decisions about their parks and wildlife.
If you want to give positive or negative feedback to Todd Loewen, you can contact him at fp.minister@gov.ab.ca or 780 644-7353; just tell him you are a hunter or trapper if you want “special treatment.”
