Remember that cougar attack that happened in Banff National Park a few weeks ago – the one that got widespread coverage in the media?
According to Parks Canada, the attack never happened.
To be more specific, the agency’s forensics team found no evidence of a cougar, including DNA or tracks, anywhere close to where 23-year-old Spencer Weilermann reported the attack.
The alleged attack occurred last month when Weilermann was on a solo day trip along the Rockbound Lake trailhead.
According to Weilermann, the cougar hunted him before attacking and made its move when he stepped off the trail to pee around 11 AM.
The cougar allegedly pounced on his back, forcing Weilermann into fight-or-flight mode.
“I just grabbed as much hair as I could, chucked it off my shoulder and kind of did like a front flip, and we tumbled down this hill. It was just pure adrenaline. I wasn’t thinking,” Weilermann told CTV News.
Weilermann claims to have tumbled more than 60 feet down the hill with the cougar.
While falling, Weilermann said he hit his head on a tree or log and briefly lost consciousness.
When the lights came back on, he was holding onto the cougar while “punching for his life.” That’s when the animal decided to flee into the bushes.
Weilermann’s memory of the attack is so vivid that he remembers the awful smell of the cougar as it tried to kill him.
He told the same story to all the news outlets he spoke with following the attack.
Parks Canada immediately issued an area closure for Rockbound Lake and Silverton Falls.
But Weilermann’s story is inconsistent with what Parks Canada discovered during its investigation, which is nothing.
In addition to absolutely zero cougar evidence, some experts suggested the scratches on Weilermann’s face aren’t cougar-related.
A Curious Case Kept Hush Hush
John E. Marriott, the Co-Founder of Exposed Wildlife Conservancy and a full-time professional photographer, lives and works in the area and is an expert on the comings and goings of local wildlife, especially predators like bears, wolves and cougars.
Exposed Wildlife Conservancy’s goal is to raise awareness of wildlife conservation issues in Canada.
When Marriott learned of the cougar attack, he immediately knew that something wasn’t right.
Cougars are most active during dusk and dawn.
Why was a cougar hunting in broad daylight, especially in an area with very little prey, such as deer and elk?
Cougars also avoid hunting in deep snow areas like the Rockbound Lake trail.
“I’d actually been out on the Bow Valley Parkway that morning and hadn’t seen a thing. I had left at about 10:30 AM, and this had happened at 11 AM,” Marriott told City News.
Marriott believed something was off.
Marriott, who previously worked for Parks Canada, used his connections at the agency to find out more.
“I fairly quickly learned that it was not a cougar attack — from people that I know within Parks Canada — and that they were being gagged, they were not being allowed to speak out by upper management,” explained Marriott.
Why The Delay in Reporting?
Marriott’s revelations raise questions.
If Parks Canada knew there was no cougar attack soon after it was reported, why did the agency wait until now to spill the beans?
In addition, why did the agency wait a week to lift the area closure for Rockbound Lake and Silverton Falls if it knew there was no cougar attack?
There’s no simple answer, but Marriott has a hunch.
“I’ve spoken with quite a few Parks Canada employees, both past and present, and they feel that Banff is still stuck in the Harper era and totally lacks transparency at this point. I feel the same way,” Marriott told TheRockies.Life in an interview.
It’s no secret that Stephen Harper’s government and transparency went together like toothpaste and orange juice.
Parks Canada’s eagerness to sweep the details of this supposed cougar attack under the rug suggests that little has changed in the agency.
Marriott told The Rockies.Life:
“They would’ve known within 24 hours that this was probably not an attack, so that would’ve been very easy to have made a quick statement that would’ve put some doubt into this cougar attack story; ‘Parks Canada is currently investigating the story of an alleged animal attack at the Rockbound Lake trailhead.’ A day or two later, that could have been updated to ‘Parks Canada did not find any evidence of cougar activity at the alleged animal attack scene in Banff National Park and is now undergoing a forensics investigation to determine next steps.’”
A Damaged Image
There are more questions than answers surrounding the phantom cougar attack in Banff.
For starters, did Weilermann lie about being attacked?
No one knows, but people have theories. It’s possible Weilermann was attacked by an animal, but not a cougar.
He may have mistaken another animal for a cougar or embellished the story for media headlines.
Others believe Weilermann might have suffered from a mental health episode and had a fall where he was injured.
Weilermann has been under a lot of stress. In December, Weilermann’s 20-month-old son passed away suddenly.
No matter the reason, reports like Weilermann’s damage the image of cougars and paint the animals as aggressive.
Cougar Attacks Are Very Rare
“It’s a shame that a story like this can stoke people’s fears, but it’s important to remember that cougar attacks are incredibly rare,” explained Marriott.
“You’re still more likely to die from a vending machine falling on you than you are from a cougar attack,” Marriott told City News. “So, that’s how ridiculous, that’s how rare a cougar attack is.”
In the last 100 years, there have been seven cougar-related deaths in Canada, only one of which happened in Alberta.
The few cougar attacks in Canada often involved adults who ventured into cougar territory alone or children.
Cougars are most likely to attack if they feel cornered or if a fleeing human triggers their instinct to chase.
But cougars do not hunt humans.
A desperately hungry cougar is more likely to attack livestock for a meal than humans.
More often than not, cougars will flee at the sound of human voices, so much so that they are willing to abandon a fresh kill.
People can coexist with these beautiful animals because they go out of their way to avoid us.
Misunderstood Animals
As humans continue to expand and are more active in cougar territory, the chances of an unwanted cougar encounter increase.
Unfortunately, the method for controlling cougar populations in Alberta is hunting. But our beautiful land is just as much theirs as it is ours.
Cougars are misunderstood animals that play a big role in supporting the ecosystems in which they live.
“They’re ecosystem engineers that help shape the very forests that they live in by controlling prey, contributing to the soil biome and feeding almost two hundred different types of mammals, rodents, birds and other organisms,” said Marriott.
Learning to coexist should be our top priority. The Exposed Wildlife Conservancy, where Marriott is the Co-Founder and Director, hopes to create a cougar-focused educational program.
Dubbed the “Cougar Coexistence Project,” the program aims to dispel myths, increase tolerance for cougars, and provide methods to reduce conflicts.
Backlash
Since Parks Canada reported no signs of cougar activity, Weilermann has received “a ton of nasty messages.”
“It’s painful that it’s being twisted and misunderstood like this online. I’m happy with just trying to stay clear of this,” Weilermann told CTV News.
Being an apex predator can make cougars seem like demons but they are an essential part of the ecosystem.
We can protect ourselves and cougars by educating ourselves on the animals.
Many resources are available online, including the Exposed Wildlife Conservancy’s “All About Cougars” page.
