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August 4th 2022 - By Kirstyn Falck, Cougar Crew Lead UBCO Hello there! My name is Kirstyn Falck, and I am a year into living the post undergraduate life. I graduated from the University of British Columbia – Okanagan campus in April 2021 and started my career up in the north working for the Government of the Northwest Territories – Fish and Wildlife Division. I was a Wildlife Health Technician for a year, conducting animal necropsies and collecting biological samples before moving back to BC. I moved to Vancouver Island and started volunteering and eventually working with the BC Government’s Wildlife Health Program. Finally, I moved back to Kelowna to start a new contract as a cougar field technician. I was first hired on the Southern BC Cougar Project in January 2022. It was my first job working exclusively in the field and I had little experience working outside in the winter. On my first day out, I tossed on my backpack and strapped myself into snowshoes, nervous for what the day would bring. I felt like a newborn fawn, traveling through snow-covered blowdown and falling over every 10 minutes (not including all the times I fell off the snowmobile). We arrived at the first cougar kill I’ve ever seen and began to hunt for the signs indicating the presence of the elusive cat. About 140 cougar kill sites later, spotting these characteristics has become obvious, but on the first day I thought Siobhan was a magician for discovering a small, raised lump of snow was actually a latrine. Visiting kill sites in the winter came with many challeges, but I can honestly say that every day was an adventure! On one particularly memorable day, we received a mortality signal from C10’s GPS collar (when the collar doesn’t move for more than 12 hours). Mariah and I were sent to investigate. After a long snowmobile ride and snowshoe, we heard the VHF frequency’s speedy beep confirming the mort signal. We slowly hiked in as the signal grew louder, scanning our surroundings in case the cougar was alive and just taking a nice long nap. We first found the collar with a forelimb, obviously scavenged by the number of bird tracks that surrounded it. We continued our search digging into the snow, looking for any other signs of what might’ve happened to C10. As we expanded our search radius, we discovered a large melted out depression in the snow with what remained of her. Leading away from the site in several directions were the tell-tale tracks of a cougar who had recently exited the scene. We collected evidence and it was later confirmed that C10’s skull had 2 puncture wounds made by another small to medium sized cougar. This was an extremely unusual find as female cougars are rarely killed by other cougars! After working in the position for several months, my confidence in the outdoors grew and I became skilled in the art of kill site investigations. I could pick out a bed site from a mile away and sniff out any latrine in a 30-metre radius. I had become one with the cougars and wanted to continue to work on the project. I applied for a grant from the Environmental Careers Organization of Canada. An organization that encourages new jobs, pays for on the job training, and provides wage funding for employees starting a career in environmental fields. They agreed to fund my contract extension and I was able to continue working with the kitties (I highly recommend looking into it if you are a co-op student or a recent graduate! https://eco.ca/). As as the season changed, I transitioned from a winter technician to the summer crew lead. With the new position came new responsibilities including training the new techs hired for the summer and all the volunteers helping with the project. On my first day transitioning from padawan to jedi I was just as nervous as my first day on the job. I assisted in developing a training presentation for investigating cougar kill sites and practiced my spiel over and over. When it came time to train the new techs, I was able to share my knowledge of site characteristics and the 20 different ways to differentiate a mule deer from a white-tailed deer. I taught them how to drive down logging roads, how to navigate, and to be confident in the outdoors. I was now the one impressing the newbies with knowing where a cougar slept with there only being a slight depression on the ground. We investigated many sites and learned the signs of kills made in the summer together during the first few weeks. In no time at all, they were off to their own cluster sites chock-full of new knowledge and skills that would prepare them for all the curveballs that one might encounter while working in the field. Since cougars make a lot of kills in the summer, our team needed some extra help to visit sites. I took on a larger role coordinating field work and built more capacity by training almost 30 volunteers to conduct cluster site investigations. I was given access to the cougar collar data to identify potential kills where GPS locations form a ‘cluster’, and every day I would find new cluster sites to ground truth. I was put in charge of coordinating field days, making plans regarding which sites to visit, and organizing multi day camping trips. My teaching skills were really put to the test when the Nature Trust of BC’s summer field crew joined us for a day at a cougar kill site on one of their properties. Reese and I corralled their 7 person team and showed them the signs of cougar predation we typically look for. It turns out when you have 18 eyes and 9 noses you find a lot! We collected so many hair samples I ran out of envelopes and had an interesting treasure hunt looking for a latrine. No one believes me when I first tell them the best way to identify cougar scat is by smelling it, but after we looked around for a while we finally sniffed our way over to the fresh latrine.
As one of the few people that have been lucky enough to work through two seasons on this project, the ol’ saying “you learn something new every day” has rung true. I have gained so much experience working in the outdoors, interacting with wildlife, working in extreme conditions, and solving problems when they arise. I have also learned so much about how conservation research is conducted, what work goes into creating a study, and how to collect data. I hope to put these new skills to use in future positions as I continue to pursue a career in wildlife management and conservation. I’m excited to share what I have learned and hopefully teach new biologists so they can feel as confident as I now am at conducting the mentally and physically challenging work that wildlife management requires.
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Authors
The authors are Southern BC Cougar Project team members & volunteers. Past Blog Entries
September 2023
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