Cougar sightings near Quil Ceda Elementary School on the Tulalip Reservation have officials concerned.
So much so that the tribal police chief is prepared to call in a hunter.
Tribal police and game officers have been working with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife to place traps near the school, 2415 74th St. NE, to catch the cougar.
"If that fails, I’m going to have a hunter take it out," Tulalip Police Chief Jay Goss said.
All across Snohomish County, development has encroached on cougars’ traditional territory, pushing them closer to populated areas and making sightings more common.
"Anything that takes over the habitat of an animal that lives in nature is going to create more sightings as you take their habitat away," Goss said.
"It’s happening all over the state where there’s growth. It’s a natural thing that we’re going to be touching on their habitat."
In the past year, there have been about a dozen cougar sightings on the reservation, but residents have reported three or four just in the past month or so.
"The ones that concern us are the ones right at the (Quil Ceda) elementary school or the fence. We just won’t allow cougars at the school," Goss said.
No children were present, and the school took no action.
"In years past, there have been reports of cougar sightings at Quil Ceda, and prior to two years ago, we may have sent several letters home," Marysville School District spokeswoman Judy Parker said Friday.
"Two years ago, we cleared a large field outside the school fence so cougars would have to walk through that large clearing. When there were woods and bushes right up to it, (the cougar) was hidden."
The most recent cougar sightings occurred in the late afternoon after children had gone home, Goss said. But after the increase in sightings, authorities urged residents to report such incidents to the tribal dispatch center at 360-651-4608. Off the reservation, phone the state wildlife agency at 800-477-6224.
Cougar sightings have taken on added importance since a cougar killed one bicyclist and attacked another in Southern California in January. However, no one has been killed by a cougar in Washington state since 1924.
Cougars have been known to attack farm animals in Snohomish County in recent years. Some have been shot by farmers.
Statewide, wildlife personnel are being aggressive in efforts to minimize contact between cougars and people.
Since Dec. 1, hunters with special permits have killed 43 of 61 cougars targeted for removal in areas where they have raised the greatest concern. Those kills occurred after the regular hunting season, during which another 100 cougars were killed.
"Public safety is our first priority for cougar management in Washington state," wildlife department director Jeff Koenings said in a statement.
"Our enforcement officers attempt to track and kill any cougar that attacks a human or presents an immediate threat to public safety. But there’s a lot more to managing our state’s cougar population than just chasing individual animals."
Department personnel have responded to an average of one or two nonfatal attacks per year in the last decade. In the last documented attack, a cougar pounced on a hunter while he was field dressing an elk in the Blue Mountains in November. The man was not seriously injured.
State officials estimated there are up to 4,000 cougars in the state, said Donny Martorello, a department carnivore specialist.
Hunters used to pursue cougars with dogs, the most effective way to track them, he said. But in 1996, voters approved Initiative 655, which banned using hounds to hunt cougars.
Since then, the department has removed some cougars from areas with the highest number of public complaints, used dogs to remove cougars from areas with public safety concerns, expanded the hunting season to compensate for the ban on using hounds and issued permits anytime a cougar presented a danger to the public, pets or livestock.
The number of filed cougar complaints has dropped from a high of 955 in 2000 to 255 in 2003, department officials said.
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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